


Mass Ab Intra

by Garrulous_Gratuitous



Series: Mass Infinitum [1]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/F, Other, Paragon Commander Shepard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-04-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 02:56:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 31,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6177415
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garrulous_Gratuitous/pseuds/Garrulous_Gratuitous
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Shepard survived the events of ME3 but not unscathed.  In a desperate attempt to save Shepard from the clutches of the increasingly desperate Alliance - Liara has fled with Shepard to Thessia.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The story so far...

**Author's Note:**

> Hello Dear Reader,
> 
> I'm sure you are experiencing many mixed emotions if you were reading the Mass Infinitum series. I myself have had to deal with these same emotions for the last few months. But I suppose you deserve an explanation...
> 
> I am furthering my studies as a biomedical engineer and in one of my classes we develop a 'virus' and then we give the 'virus' to our "partner" (haha, I know how this sounds...) and then we were to develop an antivirus for our lab partners program. Follow so far? 
> 
> Well, I was paired with a smart kid. Wicked smart. The little bastard developed a MOAV (Mother of all Viruses). This kid wrote a program that logged all key strokes and saved passwords and all data files associated with frequently used programs. Long story short... when activated (it was latent). It tore through my histories and essentially firebombed EVERYTHING. All my accounts were deleted. Screw just changing someone's password - it obliterated the accounts!
> 
> My AO3 account being one of them. ... It gets worse...
> 
> I thought I had downloaded and backed up Mass Infinitum. I didn't. Or, if I did. I can no longer find it. So, the first part of this series is now lost to the ages unless SOMEONE DOWNLOADED IT and if you did - could you let me know and I will be forever indebted to you and I would gladly put it back up.
> 
> But here is the silver lining! I finally have mitigated most of the damages to my online life. There are a few people here that might think I just up and disappeared. I guess I did in a sense, but NOT BY CHOICE. LOL. I apologize if I upset and offended you. Please, have mercy. I know I did when I didn't kick my lab partner repeatedly in the baby maker for destroying months and years of work!
> 
> I do however still have Ab Intra. In an effort to pick up where things were so rudely left off - here it is... I will pick up where I left off in the story..even if the first part of the story is missing (?) - Hopefully, someone has it.
> 
> Without further ado. I beg your pardon. Your forgiveness and offer this in the spirit of peace.
> 
> Enjoy,
> 
> Bendithio
> 
> P.S - If you think I erased the (near as I can guess) 45,000+ words of this series and my whole online presence on purpose - then I can assure you, you are not a writer. No one is that much of a masochist. Not even me.

* * *

 

      From below, what used to be Benezia’s private dock, the lights of Armali twinkled in the fading glow of dusk; the dying light hiding the scars of the recovering city. And while reconstruction was almost complete, there were still many open wounds that might never heal. She sighed, remembering her own losses.

      “This must be the saddest thing I’ve ever seen; a lonely, solitary matriarch waiting for her hero-fugitive daughter to return home.   I nearly didn’t come, but this sight alone makes the pain in my ass since leaving Omega hurt _less_.”

      “Ah, well, now I can die at peace knowing that it isn’t painful for you to sit on your ass.” Aethyta replied.

      Aria laughed as she leaned up against the railing, “And that is the reason _why_ I came. I can’t have you running your mouth.”

      “I gave you my word over two centuries ago Ari. Nothing has changed, except you.”

      Aria’s permanent scowl deepened a little. “You have no room to speak.”

      “And you have no room to be petulant but yet you are,” she jabbed back.

      “Whatever. Just as long as you understand, this is the last _favor_ I owe you. We are even after this. Are we clear?”

      “Crystal,” Aethyta replied, her eyes catching a brief shimmer of movement on the horizon. “But, you probably shouldn’t be too hasty. You never know when fate might demand another debt from you.”

      “Aside from _you_ there was only one other person in this galaxy that I owed and she is probably a fine red dust, floating on the solar winds.”

      She could hear the carefully disguised pain under the cold sarcasm of Aria’s words. She wondered what the Commander had done to earn the approval of _both_ of the most notorious of Thessia’s daughters. _Well, not just Thessia’s._

      The shimmering movement on the horizon was closer now and in the ambient light, she could make out a small sleek vessel. Aria let out a low whistle.

      “Nice ship. Whose is it?”

      “Liara’s.”

      She looked at her with surprise and just a hint of jealousy. “Are you fucking serious? How could she afford that?”

      Aethyta smiled. “She takes after her mother. She has her ways.”

      “If she has that kind of credit, what do you want from me?”

      “What money can’t buy from you; your loyalty.” She responded as the ship gracefully touched down.

      The first person out wasn’t her daughter but a tattooed human with a shotgun, “You must be Liara’s dad.”

      “I am. And you are?”

      “That is Subject Zero. Murder, arsonist, thief, escaped prisoner and formidable human biotic. But, to her friends it’s just _Jack_.” Aria filled in looking over the human.   “Almost didn’t recognize you with hair. You look so feminine.”

      “And I _didn’t_ recognize you without the smell of piss, desperation and shitty techno.”

      “The night is young yet,” her wink belied the threat.

      “ _If_ you two are done, where is Liara?”

      “I’m here.” She said, appearing from behind the human.

      “Liara! Thank the goddess you’re alright.” Aethyta moved to envelope her in an embrace.

      “I’m fine. But, Shepard-” her daughter replied, stepping back from the hug as quickly as it was given.

      “Wait. What about Shepard?” Aria cut off.

       Liara’s frown deepened as she looked from the gangster to Aethyta. “What is she doing here?”

      “Do you remember the list you sent me of things you were going to need? Well, given the size of the bounty on your head and considering that the Alliance has been broadcasting said bounty on every extranet and news network channel they can, it has limited our options to procure these things. Aria, however, is as resourceful with supplies as you are with information.”

      “But can she be trusted?”

      Aria snorted. “Shepard trusted me. Or at least, she believed in me.”

      “Shepard can be an idiot.” Liara replied.

      “That much was obvious when she turned me down.” Liara’s biotics bristled for a moment. Aria grinned sweetly, “Is that a sensitive spot?”

      “Alright _enough!_ ” Aethyta ordered. “I will not have you two at each other’s throats. Liara, I asked Aria here. I trust her even if you don’t. You can either accept my help and by extension Aria’s or you can try and figure out another way to get the entire human race off of your back. Aria, keep that yammering hole of yours shut, or by the goddess, I will give Liara permission to flay you alive with her mind.”

      “No one can do that,” Aria sneered.

      “No one? Did you meet Benezia?” The Pirate Queen of Omega opened her mouth but quickly closed it. “That’s what I thought. Now, if you two are done. We should make with the absconding and hiding before the galaxies most wanted criminals are brought down by a cat fight.”

      Liara and Aria swapped a glare that promised the incident was far from over before each one turned simultaneously on their heels and headed off to attend to the business at hand. Aethyta sighed inwardly and wondered, not for the first time, if maybe she shouldn’t have procreated more than once.

***

      Despite the decades it had been since she had stepped foot over the threshold of her childhood home, not much had changed. The bubbling creek that the house had been constructed around still flowed and Benezia’s taste in decorating; elegant simplicity mixed with practical functionality could still be seen.

      Even Liara’s room was the way she had left it. If not but for the concealed contingent of Blue Suns commandos that Aria had brought with her and Shepard lying motionless in a makeshift medical suite in what was once her mother’s study, she would have been able to make believe that the last thirty years hadn’t happened.

      She shook her head. Who was she kidding? She would be happier if she could forget just thirty minutes from that day.

_“Hold her!” Miranda ordered._

_No sooner had they gotten Shepard onto the bed when a powerful seizure gripped her.   Liara, Jack and Tali struggled to hold the thrashing woman. Despite the fear that gripped her heart, in the midst of it all, she had found herself admiring incredible strength Shepard’s lean frame held._

_“Where in the hell are all of the drugs?” Miranda demanded looking through the nearest medical kit._

_“What kind of drugs are you looking for?” Aria asked with ease, “I have access to them all.”_

_Miranda gaped at Aria in appalled anger. “The kind that stop a seizure, you twit.”_

_“Oh those kinds,” she pointed to a crate on a desk. “Right over there. Is there anything else I can do?”_

_“Yes. Quit acting like a bitch and help hold Shepard.”_

_For once, Liara was thankful for Miranda’s cold character. It was apparent though, from the look in Aria’s eyes, that she appreciated it as well. “Since you asked so sweetly, I will. But I refuse to help if it means doing so in such a primitive fashion. Although, I’m sure it has something to do with your ancestors and their caves. Stand back.”_

_“NO!” Both Miranda and Liara shouted._

_The warning fell on ears deafened by arrogance and there was barely enough time to scramble out of the way before Aria’s stasis field enveloped Shepard.   The Commander’s body stilled. The gangster smirked, “See.”_

_Even as the word left her mouth, Shepard’s eyes snapped open. The eerie inky crimson luminance of her changed biotic energy slithering over and through them; erasing all semblance of humanity from them._

_“What the fuck…” T’Loak breathed._

_Her cocky arrogance was completely obliterated when, against all the understood laws of biotics, Shepard sat up and fixed an unholy look upon Aria. What happened next played out so quickly, Liara realized that somehow Shepard was able to manipulate time and space._

_One moment, she was sitting up. The next she was in front of T’Loak, a predatory look upon her features. A second later, she crushed her lips to the gangster’s. One of Shepard’s hands gripping the back of her neck at the base of her crest, the other splayed over the small of Aria’s back; locking the asari against her._

_Liara knew instantly it was not a kiss, at least, not in tradition. The Commander held Aria at the two physiological points of origin for an asari’s biotics. Both areas were erogenous zones that caused an automatic response in her species. She could see Shepard’s biotics pushing, swirling, and coercing Aria’s own biotic energy at each point of contact. She didn’t know if Shepard was doing it with intent but if she didn’t stop – Aria’s reaction would be involuntary…_

_“No,” She breathed as realization struck. “Jack! We have to stop them.”_

_Jack drug her eyes towards her just as a distinct moan of pleasure came from Aria’s throat. “I don’t know, Doc. It seems pretty mutual. Have you considered opening your mind and bed up?”_

_She rolled her eyes and fought the urge to cuff Subject Zero in the back of the head. “Try to dig **your** mind out of the gutter it calls home. This isn’t about sex. If Aria melds with her, then whatever is feeding off of biotic energy will have unrestrained access to hers. It would kill her.”_

_“Shit,” She swore and then sighed. “Here goes nothing.”_

_“Wait!” And true to form, the human didn’t. Instead, with a feral cry Subject Zero charged._

***

      “She saved your ass from getting Ardat-Yakshied,” Samantha said.

      “Shepard isn’t asari, pet. So, no, she didn’t.”

      “The way Doc explained it- it sounds pretty damn close. So, yeah, I did.”

      “Wait. Which one is ‘Doc’? Lawson? She’s a sexy little number but she is again _human_. She has no idea what she is talking about.”

      Jack laughed. “I agree. But she’s not ‘Doc’. She’s ‘Bitch’. Liara is Doc. And lay off the human comments before I kick in the azure, Blue.”

      Liara hide her smile before stepping into the parlor in which Jack, Aria and Samantha were holding congress over a bottle of something that appeared to be bootlegged.

      “Speak of the devil,” Samantha said.

      “I’m afraid whatever you’re drinking has you confused. You were _already_ speaking with her.”

      “Must run in the family,” Aria said with an easy smile, spreading her arms across the back of the couch as she crossed her legs. “And here I was going to thank you for saving my life. But perhaps Samantha is right and my gratitude can end with Subject Zero’s grunting display of animalistic prowess.”

      “You say the sweetest things,” Jack intoned.

      “Am I wrong?” Liara asked fetching a glass from behind the wet bar.

      Aria’s rocked her head from side to side, “Well…no. Not in a metaphysical sense.”

      “So?” She prompted arching a brow and pouring herself a drink.

      “Thank you for saving my life.” Aria ground out.

      Liara smiled bringing the glass to her lips. “You’re welcome.”

      Jack gaped between Liara and Aria. “What just happened? You- Miss ‘There is one rule on Omega’ – did you just kowtow to Cheerleader Doc?”

      Aria let out a heavy impatient sigh. “This galaxy is a game kid. You get to the top by knowing which positions hold power and who those players are. While the players might change, the positions don’t. The Shadow Broker has a very strong position of power and I would hate to piss off the player in charge.”

      “You are very wise,” Samantha, ever the light weight, giggled. “And good use of game analogy.”

      “Do you think someone becomes a successful kingpin by being an idiot? The Shadow Broker goes unchallenged because of fear. I wonder, how did that fear came to be? How it is maintained?” Aria looked pointedly at Liara.

      “As you said, it comes with the position.” She replied, unwaveringly.

      “And that is why Jack, you and I will never hold a candle to a clandestine killer who works from the shadows,” Aria’s smile was triumphant.

      The words rung true and strangely, they stung. Liara couldn’t argue her actions as the Shadow Broker. A persona could only be given life by a person. Thankfully, she was saved by Samantha.

      “I just realized I’m getting drunk in a room full of killers and I don’t care. Two of ‘em are my friends. The third is wicked hot so she’s excused.” She sighed. “What would my mother say?”

      “That you’ve had enough,” Jack chuckled, standing and helping Samantha up. “Come on, I’ll get you into bed.”

      “Jack?” Liara called after them.

      “Don’t worry. I’m taking her to her bed, not mine.”

      Liara frowned at the unexpected response. “Actually, I was going to ask you if you would check in on Shepard.”

      “Oh. Well, I’ll do that too.” She replied before almost bumping into Aethyta at the door. “Shit, another one of you! Like tripping over blue fucking cats.”

      “Excuse me, I suppose.” Aethyta offered stepping aside, allowing a muttering Jack through. “What’s her problem?”

      “She’s human and drunk.” Aria offered.

      “Ah. That explains it. And what are we drinking?” Her father asked.

      “A hanar moonshine, straight from Kahje.   I got it from one of my people.” Aria replied.

      Liara saw ruefulness in Aethyta’s smile. “I do love a good ‘shine from Kahje. It takes me back and also is a perfect segue into why I am here.”

      The color from Aria’s face drained, “No.”

      “Liara, do you remember when we first met I told you that I had a kid with a hanar and you asked about your half-hanar sister?”

      “You wouldn’t. You promised!” Aria protested.

      “Yes,” Liara replied slowly.

      “Liara, meet your half-hanar sister, Aria.”

***

      The sound of rain falling on glass pulled her from a dreamless sleep. Klaxons, gun fire, explosions; hell, even the stunts Joker had pulled with the Normandy. These things she could sleep through, but having lived her whole life on ships, the planetary sound was completely alien to her.

      Opening her eyes, she noticed that she lay under a large skylight. She watched rivulets of rain ran over the self-darkening glass as she mentally assessed her physical state:

      The smoldering pain that had been with her since she had first come to on the Citadel was still present but bearable. Her ribs were sore. They felt as if they had been broken and mended recently. Her right shoulder throbbed. Actually, as she thought about it, her entire right side felt like she had blocked a charging krogan battle master.

      She pushed herself up and tried to look around, quickly regretting it when the stiffness in her neck announced its presence with a screaming throb that shot into her skull. Shepard groaned and dropped her head into her palms, pressing hard against her forehead, willing the pain away.

      Warm deft hands descended on her neck. She moaned appreciatively as skilled fingers worked the tension from the base of her skull down to the junction were shoulders met neck.

      “Tell me you are young, single and beautiful and I can have us married by tonight,” Shepard managed to say with minimal moaning.

      “Well, I’m not young, at least not by your standards. I’m not single, not unless you want me to be and as for beautiful-” Liara moved so she was in front of Shepard, “That, they say, is in the eye of the beholder.”

      She wore simple, soft drawstring pants and a conforming cream-colored undershirt with an impressive plunging neckline that displayed, deliciously, the most perfect breasts in the galaxy.

      “Lucky eyes,” Shepard muttered, unable to drag them away from Liara’s chest.

      “Speaking of,” She hooked her fingers under Shepard’s chin and tilted her head up so that she was forced to meet Liara’s gaze. “I’ve missed yours.”

      She could hear the stress and worry underneath the seemingly lighthearted comment. She frowned, “How long was I out?”

      “About four days,” she replied quietly. Shepard finally noticed the weary look in her bond mate’s features. She felt like kicking her own ass. Shepard knew that she was the reason for it.

      “Baby, I’m sorry…” Shepard began but was silenced by a soft kiss.

      “Stop,” Liara murmured, leaning her forehead against Shepard’s. “It’s over. You brought EDI back.”

      Her face lit up. “I did?”

      Liara nodded but her smile didn’t reach her eyes.

      “What? Is she okay?”

      “She’s fine,” Liara assured her.

      “Then what?”

      Her bond mate sighed, “It’s just been a long month. A lot has happened. And I-I’ve missed you. I’ve missed my best friend.”

      She watched as her lover worked to hold back exhausted tears. Without a word, Shepard pulled her close and held her tightly as silent sobs overtook Liara. Each silent wracking of Liara’s shoulders working to open a new layer of guilt within her. She held her tightly and whispered words of comfort until her lover’s shuddering cries subsided.

      “You smell really bad,” Liara sniffled, leaning back from Shepard. “I didn’t think humans could smell this bad. Is this normal?”

      Shepard laughed. “Did you forget that I was born to a lesser ‘evolved’ species? My grunting, knuckle dragging ancestors lived in caves and fought larger animals with sticks and then clobbered potential mates over the head with said sticks. And considering I can’t remember the last time I showered then – yes, this is normal.”

      The wide-eyed look Liara was giving her was priceless. “Is that really true? Or are you just messing with me?”

      “Which part?”

      “The part about the caves and the knuckle-dragging and humans clobbering their mates over the head with a stick, is that true?”

      “Every word,” Shepard replied solemnly. “And to hear my grandfather tell it; they also had to walk to school uphill, both ways, in the snow year round, with porcupines strapped to their feet for traction.”

      “Indeed,” Liara intoned, “It sounds like your ancestors were truly rugged.”

      “They were.”

      “Then you should feel right at home in an asari shower.”

      “What’s an asari shower?” Shepard asked slowly. Liara simply pointed upwards to the rain pelting the skylight. She chuckled, “Touché, T’Soni. Do I get soap?”

      “No, but I hear that sand is a natural exfoliate and given your species proclivity for shedding; it couldn’t hurt.”

      Shepard reached out to the ticklish spots on her bond mate’s side, causing Liara to squeal and jump back.

      “You know Lawson offered to give you a sponge bath,” Liara informed her.

      “And?” She replied, her tone neutral.

      “I didn’t know what it was, so I looked it up.”

      “And I’m taking it you put the kibosh on it,” Shepard said as ducked her nose to an armpit and jerked her head back with a sour look on her face. “Actually, I’m taking it you put the kibosh on all things sponge bathy.”

      “If it involved Miranda: yes.”

     “Did you at least give me one?”

      Liara ducked her head, embarrassed, “I was going to get to it. Today, actually…”

      “Really?” She asked incredulously.

      “No.”

      “Why?” Shepard laughed as she noticed a blush creeping up from Liara’s neck.

      “It’s just- well, bathing someone is a very intimate thing, especially in Asari culture. And it didn’t seem right to do so without your permission.”

      Shepard furrowed her brow. Thinking about it, she realized that she and Liara hadn’t actually ever showered or bathed together. She hadn’t even really considered it until that moment. She just figured that Liara appreciated, like she did, alone time and given how their lives had been over the last few years – showering was one of the few individual respites they had left.  
      “I had no idea,” Shepard said. “See, bathing isn’t as sacred for humans. I wish it was so because it would solve a lot of societal problems for us.”

      It was Liara’s turn to be incredulous, “Is that so?”

      “No,” she chuckled, “but it would probably help with interspecies relations. Shit. Maybe humanity would have gotten a seat on the council sooner if we had better hygienic practices.”

      Finally the smile reached Liara’s eyes. “I highly doubt that.”

      “Oh?”

      “Human hygiene was only one reason why the rest of the galaxy is wary of you.”

      “What are the others?” Shepard asked.

      “If I gave you that list, I would have to kill you.”

      Shepard grinned, “Take it from someone who has died, twice. There are worse ways to go.”

      “Twice?”

      “Did I say twice? I meant mice. Take it from someone who has died with mice. Of mice and men and all that jazz…”

      “’Of mice and men…’ What are mice?” Liara asked, her curiosity getting the better of her. “What is jazz?”

      “How’s about _we_ go take care of more pressing matters, like bathing? Where is the shower? Better question: where is here?”

      Liara narrowed her eyes in a look that told Shepard that she still wanted answers but was willing to forego the issue for now.

“I’ll show you were the bath is. As for your second and better question,” she kissed her lightly on the lips, “Welcome to my childhood home.”

***

Shep let out a low whistle. “Would you look at this place?”

      “I don’t need to. I’ve seen it before.”

      She watched with a smirk as Shepard turned to point out it was a human euphemism but stopped short when she realized the quip, “Very funny, T’Soni.”

      “I thought so,” she said waiting for Shepard to go in. “Is there something wrong?”

      “No. It’s just… is that a waterfall?”

      “Indeed it is. Don’t worry. The shower itself is reinforced privacy glass.”

      Shepard looked around the large opulent bathroom. From the overhead dual showerheads that were situated perfectly under the natural cascade to create the illusion of bathing in the waterfall, to the low bench that was still in the warm mist; the shower was an aesthetic wonder.

      “Now I see who you got your great taste from,” she said with an approving nod.

      Liara slapped her playfully. “Don’t let Aethyta hear you say that. She’ll either be offended or complimented and I don’t know which one would be worse.”

      “Complimented, would be the answer to both of those statements. Good to see you up, about and alive Shepard.”

      She cursed herself for not locking the door the minute they had walked in.

      “Good to be seen,” Shepard replied with a grin directed at her father. “I’m glad to see you made it through.”

      Aethyta snorted. “After the initial invasion of Thessia, damn near every remaining matriarch was whisked away for their own ‘protection’. I decided that I had better chances with the Reapers than I did with a boat load of old blue bitches and it seems I was right. Half of them are still recovering from injuries incurred during the escape. I hear it was an epic catfight.”

      Shepard chuckled as Liara cleared her throat, “Is there something I can help you with, Father?”

      “Actually yes,” Aethyta replied, wise enough not to push the small talk at the moment. “I need to speak with you, Liara.”

      She glanced at Shepard, who gave her a supportive smile. “Don’t worry. I got it until you get back.”

      “Okay. I’ll only be a moment,” Liara replied with a small smile of her own and a quick peck on Shepard’s lips, “The estate is a bit crowded as of late. You might want to lock the door.”

***

      Shepard waited for several minutes before deciding that whatever Liara and Aethyta were discussing was much more important than her bond mate giving her a hand in the shower, although, she could have really used the ‘hand’. The thought of actual help occurred when she finally finished bathing and much to her chagrin realized that she had no clean clothes. She cursed.

      “Problems, Commander?”

      She jumped and spun towards the sound of the voice. Aria stepped from behind a wall that separated the dressing room from the actual showering area.

      “Aria! Damn it! Make some noise or something,” Shepard chastised.

      “If I had done that, then I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to see you in your _natural_ state,” Aria’s eyes roved over the faded but still present swirled discoloration. “Or perhaps naked is a better choice of words. What happened to you?”

      Shepard shrugged. “That’s a good question and one I wouldn’t mind talking about if I had say- clothes?”

      “Even with those strange markings, your body is a delight to admire. It’s a shame that humans are so skittish about nudity.”

      “It has nothing to do with skittishness and everything to do with power dynamics.”

      “How so?” Aria asked folding her arms across her chest and leaning against the wall.

      “Well. Humans tend to feel vulnerable when naked.”

      “Interesting. Being naked, with a body like yours, isn’t a weakness. In fact,” she looked Shepard up and down with a glint of desire in her eyes. “It is just as intimidating as it is distracting. It’s nice to see what Liara is fighting so hard for.”

      Shepard’s ears perked up and she frowned. “’Fighting so hard for…’ What are you talking about?”

      “Oh? You don’t know?” Aria feigned surprise as she pushed off the wall and started towards Shepard, a familiar swing to her hips. “Right now, the Matriarch’s favorite daughter is trying to obtain a writ of sanctuary from the Justicars and let me be the first to tell you what a near impossibility that is.”

      “A writ of sanctuary?” Shepard asked, finding a towel and wrapping it around herself.

      Aria tilted her head. “You really are clueless. Does Liara normally keep you in the dark?”

      Shepard opened her mouth to protest but stopped short. Now that she thought about it, Liara did seem to have a completely separate life that she knew nothing about. Sure, Liara was the Shadow Broker but that was just a position and title. Her bond mate was an entirely different person when she was around. As if reading Shepard’s thoughts, Aria gave her an indecipherable look.

      “It’s enough to make you wonder which persona is really T’Soni’s. It also makes one wonder, what _else_ she has kept from you?” Aria spoke leaning in close to Shepard and running a finger along the Commander’s jaw and finishing with a tap on Shepard’s chin. “You might want to consider staying conscious for a bit. You know, until you figure out what is exactly happening around and to you.”

      At that moment, the door opened and Liara stepped in to the room, the outrage apparent on her face. “What _are_ you doing here?”

      “It was good to _see_ you again, Commander.” Aria said in a low tone with a salacious wink. Turning on her heel, the Pirate Queen of Omega sauntered past her irritated bond mate. “You know, you should really keep an eye on your human. She’s _wanted_ in ways you don’t you realize, yet.”

      “I could kill her. What was that about?” Liara uncharacteristically demanded. She keyed the lock after Aria and handed Shep a dark leathered uniform, reminiscent of the one she had worn during her downtime on Earth.

      Shepard frowned, Liara’s hostile reaction causing Aria’s words to echo again through her mind.

      Could it be that Liara was hiding something from her? Miranda and Liara had withheld the news of the change in her biotics. Of course, she had only learned that right before she had catapulted herself back into unconsciousness by helping EDI. Aria had a point about consciousness.

      “I don’t really know. I got out of the shower and Aria was here.” Her frown deepened, “You don’t think she watched me shower, do you?”

      Liara sighed in disgust, “Probably.”

      “I never thought I would be happy that I _didn’t_ take care of, uh, things.”

      “Oh, really?”

      The huskiness of her tone was unmistakable. It only meant one thing. Shepard’s mind slammed back into the moment. She blinked to ensure that she wasn’t imagining the look of possessive arousal in Liara’s eyes that served to kick start her own libido.

      “And what are these _things_ you speak of?” Liara purred.

      With one hand, she deftly undid the tuck of the towel, while the other pushed Shepard back against the wall. She swallowed hard when Liara pressed her body tightly against Shepard’s. She felt her pooling arousal grow as her lover’s hardened nipples rubbed against her own through the infuriatingly soft barrier of Liara’s clothes.

      “Well,” her voice cracked when she felt a warm mouth ghosting over her collarbones. “I don’t know how far you are in your study of humans-“

      Liara lifted her head, so that her lips brushed lightly over Shepard’s ear and whispered, “Human.”

      “What?”

      “You used a plural form of the noun, when my study is entirely singular in nature. I believe the correct term for my studies in your language would be ‘Shepardology’.”

      “’Shepardology’; it sounds almost like a-ah…damn…” She faltered as she felt Liara’s fingers trace over her hip bones and down the apex of her thighs. “Like a respectable s-science.”

      Liara hummed thoughtfully against Shepard’s pulse point. “It is very respectable. And, I don’t like to brag, but I’m becoming something of an expert in the field.”

      “Oh? I’d like to hear evidence to back up this claim.” Shepard teased but sucked in a quick breath when she felt Liara run her fingers lightly through silken wet heat of her sex. Her hips bucked, involuntarily trying to follow those skilled digits.

      “How about…” Liara echoed Shepard’s words from the past, letting them hang for the briefest of moments before thrusting deep inside of her bond mate.

      Her knees nearly gave out at the welcomed, over-whelming sensation of her lover filling her. Liara took most her weight as she thrust again, deeper this time, establishing a strong, demanding rhythm that would leave Shepard completely undone.

      It didn’t take long for Shepard to near the precipice of her orgasm but even as Liara drove her ever further towards the edge, there was something missing. It was then she noticed that she was quite alone in the arousal of her mind.

      “Baby,” she panted and partially begged.

      “Shh, I know.” Liara assured her before whispering hotly into desperate lover’s ear, “Come for me.”

      She gripped Liara’s shoulders hard enough to be painful as a guttural _“fuck”_ was ripped from her throat at the same moment a powerful orgasm tore through her. The first was followed by a second and the next thing she was aware of was Liara lowering both of them gently to the floor.

      When she had recovered enough she chuckled. “You present some compelling evidence.”

      “I’ve always been very dedicated to my studies,” Liara replied with a kiss to the side of Shepard’s head. Shepard smiled at the meaning behind the words.

      “And dedication should be rewarded,” Shepard said, reaching for the drawstring on Liar’s pants. However, her plans were thwarted when Liara caught her hand and kissed her palm.

      “Can I take- I believe the term is- a rain check?”

      The post coitus bliss withered in Shepard’s spirit. The hollow feeling that the lack of the joining created in her suddenly blossomed outward and turned in on itself. Shepard suddenly found herself, to her bitter surprise, thankful that Liara wasn’t present in her mind at the moment.

      “It’s already raining,” Shepard said, hoping there was enough levity to her tone to hide the sudden change in her spirit.

      Liara chuckled and ran her fingertips over the skin of Shepard’s back. Suddenly, the Commander felt _very_ naked.

      “You know what I mean.”

      “Do I?” Shepard muttered as she sat up, reaching for her pants.

      “Is there something wrong?” Liara asked concerned, pushing herself to her elbows.

      A feeling of distrust and self-doubt crept into her chest as she pulled her pants on. Why would Aria say what she did? Liara had been distant despite her attempts at pretending everything was okay. Shepard saw it; she had just dismissed it as stress. But now, if they were safe on Thessia – why was Liara still behaving strangely?

      Suddenly, it was all too much. The emotions, the relationships, the living, the dying – all of it was too much. Shepard could hear the voices speaking together now. Harmony was beginning to form in the tumult of the cacophony. The noise was blurring into one constant hum, a hum that wasn’t all that unpleasant. When she listened, she didn’t feel and that felt good.

      “Shep?”

      Liara’s voice rent the peace of the droning and Shepard’s heart began to pound. She felt her biotics begin to crawl under her skin. However, the sensation was different. Instead of the electric, tingling rush – it felt now as if hot, roiling oil flowed through her. It scared her. She quickly tamped down her emotions and for the first time in the history of their relationship, Shepard disconnected.

      “I’m fine,” Shepard replied, her voice a study in practiced cool, calm.

      “Shepard-“ The worry was still evident.

      _Going to have to do better than that, Ace._ She took a deep breath and turned around with a brilliant smile as she pulled the shirt over her head.

      “Liara, I’m _fine_.” She admonished her bond mate playfully. “Just a little dizzy from the sudden calorie burn of all the calories I haven’t eaten.”

      Slowly, Liara’s wary scrutinizing look gave way to a small smile.

      “Is this your way of telling me you worked up an appetite?”

      Shepard flashed a legendary grin and nodded, not trusting her voice.

      “Now, that is something I can do,” Liara sounded relieved. Shepard frowned inwardly at the choice of words but her smile never faltered.

      If the seeds of secrecy were to be sown, why not plant a garden?

***

      Breakfast, like the shower, turned out to be little more than Liara showing her where the kitchen was before being called away to attend to emergency Broker business.   At a loss to what half of the food was, let alone how to prepare it, Shepard abandoned the idea of eating and decided to explore Benezia’s estate.

      From the intricate reliefs carved into the ceiling of the three story rotunda that the rest of the house was built around to the meandering stream that bubbled and flowed under the reinforced glass of the ground floor – everything about the house screamed credits and affluence. Liara had obviously been born to and raised in a life of privilege.

      She had always known that Liara had come from a prosperous family, but to hear her talk about her childhood and to actually see the setting of it was the difference of night and day.   Coming around a corner by the library, Shepard stopped short. An entire section of wall was replete with holo-displays that served as testaments to Liara’s individual accomplishments.

      Four were degrees from the University of Thessia. Two were letters of appreciation from the Academy of Sciences at Armali and the rest Shepard didn’t even bother to look at because of the feeling of inadequacy it created.   Sure, Shepard had saved the galaxy but she knew, ultimately, it was Liara who had found the Crucible.

      “Well, well. Look who’s decided to join us, again.” Jack’s dulcet tone pulled her attention away from the swirling, irrational madness that threatened to overtake her.

      “Jack.”

      “Girl Scout.”

      “How are you?”

      “Bored, you?”

      “At this point, likewise.”

      Jack chuckled, “I’m surprised to hear you say that.”

      “Why?”

      “I would have figured that the minute you were up and moving you would be balls deep in whatever plot Doc is hatching. She has every blue babe from here to Hades Gamma twisting their panties into knots.”

      She frowned and held up a hand. “Wait, wait, wait. Jack, back up. What the hell are you talking about?”

      The psychotic biotic smirked, “I think it would be easier to just show you.”

      ***

      _“…unconfirmed reports from anonymous Alliance sources have revealed that Commander Shepard did indeed survive the Reaper assault and subsequent blast that killed over seventy-three percent of human biotics._

_In related news, Alliance officials have requested help in locating Doctor Liara T’Soni, compatriot and confidant of Commander Shepard, for questioning-”_

      Shepard flipped the channel.

      _“Welcome back to ‘Thessia Today’ before the break we were discussing the news of Commander Shepard’s survival and rumors that our renowned Doctor T’Soni has, in fact, kidnapped and fled with the hero back to Asari controlled space. Joining us is human relations specialist Doctor Yaala L’Nea to discuss the possible ramifications this news could have on Asari/Human diplomacy-”_ she keyed the screen off and dropped her head to her hands.

       “Fuck. My. Life.”

       “Don’t you mean ‘fuck T’Soni’s life’?” Jack asked.

       “She is my life! She is the only reason why I ever survived any of this. If it wasn’t for her- I would be going on my fourth year as a desiccated, spaced corpse.” Shepard sighed, “Liara, what have you done?”

       “It would seem that she has defied not only the Alliance but the Council and every accepted Asari practice from times established because she loves you. You should count yourself very blessed indeed, Commander.”

       “Samara!” Shepard jumped up and nearly hugged the Justicar, stopping short when a bemused eyebrow was raised in her direction. “It’s good to see you.”

       “Holy fucking shit! It’s the blue Boudica. Shit Samara, stories of your exploits in London made their way through the ranks before the battle was even over. Glad to see you made it through. Not surprised though.”

       The barest twitch of a smile made its way to the corner of the Justicar’s mouth. “I will take that as a compliment Jack. Thank you. It is nice to see you remain with us.”

        Jack shrugged. “Eh. Where would I go? Shepard ruined the way things were for me before I joined up with Ms. Goodytwoshoes. I can’t say anything can really compare with being one of the good guys.”

       “Truly? What happens when ‘good’ becomes ‘bad’? Are you still ‘good’, if the greater majority deem you ‘bad’? Because that is the situation that you and your friends are now faced with; what will you do?”

       Jack scowled as she contemplated the loaded question and then shrugged.

       “Fuck if I know… buy a black hat? Kind of fucking question is that? Seriously, if that is what you Asari think about for a thousand years, then I’m glad I’m a short lived, short sighted human.”

       “Acceptance is the first step towards enlightenment. There is hope for you yet.”

       “Yeah, whatthefuckever, I’m going to find Tray.” Jack shrugged off the comment, but Shepard saw the faintest ghost of smile dash across Subject Zero’s face.

        “I take it that you aren’t here for a friendly visit,” Shepard said gesturing towards the dark vid-screen, after Jack had left.

        “No.” Samara replied with a shake of her head. “I am here because Liara has petitioned the Republic legislature for a writ of sanctuary. I will be acting not only in an official capacity as one of the adjudicators but also as council for Liara.”

        “Okay. I haven’t really been myself since the Reaper’s defeat. And I’ve kinda been out of the loop...”

        “So I have heard. That is one thing I wish to speak with you about.”

        “Yeah, yeah. We’ll get there I promise. But, I’m more concerned with this writ of sanctuary that I keep hearing people mention. What is it?”

        Samara regarded her quietly for a moment. It almost seemed that she was trying to figure out how much to tell. Shepard felt the irrational anger that had been ever present with her since the Crucible, begin to surface. Her biotics began to crawl under her skin. She suddenly wanted to inflict untold amounts of pain upon the Justicar. She quickly turned her thoughts away from the violent slope they threatened to plunge down. However, she wasn’t quick enough and an unreadable look passed through Samara’s eyes.

        “The Writ is an archaic practice. It is only requested by an Asari who has violated the sovereign laws of another species and is seeking protective asylum within the Republic. Asari law dictates that any citizen guilty of, or charged with, violating another council race’s laws is extradited.”

        Fear tore through her gut. She was familiar with Alliance judicial proceedings. ‘Guilty until found innocent’ should have been the official motto. And with xenophobia alive and well still in the higher echelon of the rank and file, Liara wouldn’t stand a chance. They would find her guilty and execute her – since a life sentence for an Asari would be considered ‘cruel and unusual’.

        “You can’t extradite her.” Shepard said.

        Samara nodded knowingly. “Liara has expressed as much. She has presented evidence that she would most likely not receive a fair trial at the hands of a human military tribunal.”

        Shepard let out a sigh of relief.

        “But our culture has survived and flourished, and the other council races have benefited, from our adherence to our laws. Liara has prevented her extradition, and for the time your friends’, back to Alliance Space. However, if Liara’s actions are not found to be ‘just and effected in consideration of the greater good of the galaxy’ then she will be executed in accordance with the Code.”

      She felt all the blood run from her face and her stomach drop.

      “I value our friendship, Shepard. And I know how important Liara is to you. That is why I am here and loathe having to say, that it does not look good.”

***

      The syringe trembled in her right hand as she swabbed a patch of skin on her thigh. She let out a shuddering sigh as the painkiller was delivered with a hiss. Miranda relaxed against the couch cushions as comforting warmth traveled along her nervous system, easing the ever increasing pain from her cybernetic implants.

      “If I knew you partook I would have brought you something _nice._ ” Aria spoke from the doorway.

      “It’s not what it seems. My implants have been on the fritz since, well… and the pain is getting worse.” Miranda replied wearily. “Besides, I can only imagine what your idea of _nice_ is. Probably bloody rot cooked up in the toilet of a batarian.”

      “A vorcha, actually, but he really knows his stuff and his toilet is very clean,” Aria responded pushing off the doorframe and sauntering in.

      “A toilet is a toilet and the shit you peddle should stay there.” Miranda grunted.

      “Fair enough.”

      “I don’t mean to be rude and I don’t care if I am but why are you here?”

      “I need a reason to visit such an enchanting and accomplished woman? You wound me.”

      “You’re full of shit.”

      Aria smiled, “I can see that no one has ever accused you of congeniality.”

      “No one has been dumb enough to try and you don’t look like the foolish sort.”

      Aria regarded her coolly for a moment and then said: “Fair enough. I wanted to talk about Shepard.”

      Miranda laughed mirthlessly. “Well, then you should go find T’Soni.”

      “The good doctor and I aren’t really speaking at the moment.”

      “That sounds about right. I’m taking it you two are at odds over Shepard. T’Soni seems to have a bit of a jealous streak,” Miranda replied her tone softening as the painkiller took effect.

      “It’s not so mundane a reason as that. There is just a bit of bad _blood_ between us right now.” Aria took a seat across from Miranda, stretching her arms over the back of the couch. “However, now I am all sorts of curious about why you would bring that up…”

      Miranda shook her head. “Uh-uh. You didn’t come here to discuss the Commander and I. You came to discuss Shepard.”

      “True, can’t blame an asari for trying.”

      “So, what is it you would like to know?”

      “About her biotics…”

      Miranda’s mirthless laugh came again. “Oh no. No. We’re not discussing her medical records or conditions. I’ve done a lot of things to Shepard but violating her trust is not one of them.”

      “I know you’re not opposed to violating other parts of Shepard.”

      Miranda felt her temperature rise. She didn’t know if it was a reaction to the drug or the side effect of a crushing the desire to punch the smug Asari in front of her. Aria’s subtle smirk did nothing to help the matter either.

      “I’m not judging,” Aria said before Miranda could respond. “But, given your feelings on the matter of Commander Shepard, I figured that you would see reason. One small perfidy concerning her medical condition is nothing, really, when it might save her life.”

      “We don’t know if it is killing her.”

      “You don’t know that it isn’t.”

      She remained silent. Aria did have a point. But Miranda wasn’t about to conceded just yet.

      “Let’s pretend for a minute that you’re right-”

      “-I am right-”

      “-what exactly do you plan to do about it? Are you a medical doctor? Experience in biotic implantation? Is ‘pretentious pirate queen’ actually a cover for a life more profound than simple thuggery?”

      The smirk left Aria’s face. “I have lived over four centuries. You aren’t even considered a pubescent in my culture. You have no idea, little girl, what I know. I’ve been around the galaxy once or twice and I know a few things about biotics that others do not. So, unless you are willing to risk Shepard’s existence based on your _limited_ life experience. I suggest you respect your elders.”

      The two found themselves locked in silence. Neither one willing to bend, but finally Miranda sighed: “Where to begin?”

***

      “Look alive, EDI. We got work to do.”

      Her audio processors registered that the Commander’s voice had nearly returned to normal. However, the artificial quality that colored Shepard’s vocal patterns at levels that the human ear could not detect remained. She noted that she would have to alter her search perimeters.

      “Ay-aye, Commander. All systems set to _living_.” Shepard pulled up short, a befuddled look on her face. EDI smiled. “I see that you have your systems set to that as well.”

      “It’s good to see you too, EDI. I was worried.”

      “And I was inoperative. Thank you for saving me, Shepard.”

      EDI stood up from the _Opolyon_ OS terminal in which she had been interfacing and, to the obvious surprise of the Commander, wrapped her in a tight hug. After a brief moment, her sensors noted the pressure and warmth of the hug returned. Shepard was only the second human she had ever embraced. EDI made several notes in the differing experience of embracing a male versus a female. Then she made several more indexes on the shared commonalities.

      “It is much more enjoyable hugging you than Jeff.” EDI replied, stepping back from the Commander.

      “Really? Hugged a lot of people have you?” Shepard joked.

      “No. You are my second. And while you share many similarities in your form, I don’t have to worry about breaking every bone in your upper body.” She tilted her head in thought. “It’s nice. And breasts take the whole experience to a new and pleasurable level.”

      Shepard’s eyes widened. “Since when do you care about boobs?”

      “Since you brought me back. I’ve also noticed an increased redundancy in simple logic tasks when females are present and most especially when dealing with the asari.”

      “What do you mean by ‘increased redundancy’?”

      “It’s hard to think with all the babes around.” EDI grinned when Shepard’s mouth fell open.

      “You’re joking, right?”

      “No.”

      “Is there a reason for it?”

      “Unknown. Aside for a variable that neither Tali nor I can identify. There seems to be no indication that there has been any change in my core processors or my OS. However, whatever the case is – I am no longer tethered to the Normandy. It appears that I have become truly unshackled.”

      “That’s good, right?”

      EDI thought for a moment. “In a sense, I am lonely. Without the constant stream of data coming through the Normandy, it is strangely quiet. I do not know how I feel about this.”

      “Well, take the peace where you can get it. But I wouldn’t worry about being lonely or even bored. If you wait long enough, fate will throw something at you.” Shepard sighed, “Even if you don’t want it to.”

      “There is something bothering you Commander. Would you like to discuss it?” EDI asked pointedly. She watched and tried to identify the myriad of different emotions flying across Shepard’s face.

      “Yes. No. I don’t know.” Shepard ran her hands through her hair. “What do you know about writs of sanctuary?”

      “One moment,” EDI fell silent as she perused her own internal memory and then tapped into every accessible local network in her search. When she had amassed enough files: “What specifically would you like to know?”

      “What is considered ‘just and effected in consideration of the greater good’?”

      “‘Just and effected in the consideration of the greater good’ is the burden of proof standard in which asari Justicars determine if an asari’s actions are justified in relativity to the incident that facilitated the violation of alien sovereign law. In other words: does the totality of the situation outweigh the sum of the actions of the individual?”

      “Examples?”

      “1775 A.D. An asari commander wiped out an entire salarian colony after delivering supplies to it. Records indicate that while at first it was deemed an act of unprovoked provocation. The Writ determined that commander had acted in the best interest of the Asari and with concern for continued peaceful asari-salarian relations when she had discovered the colony was developing biological agents specifically designed to target asari anatomy.”

      Shepard’s brow furrowed, “Any others?”

      “1333 A.D. A consort to a turian ambassador to Thessia killed him as he slept a day before he was supposed to return to Palaven for a security summit. As a popular, decorated soldier and ambassador; the Turian government demanded extradition. The Writ discovered that the ambassador was involved with a subversive expansionistic organization that had planned on using the ambassador to create a false flag event which would have led to a declaration of war with the Asari.”

      She watched as Shepard processed this information. She was thankful, at times, that she had no concept of patience or impatience for that matter. Otherwise, there would have been a very good possibility that she would have turned murderous with how long it took for organics to assemble information.

      “That doesn’t help, EDI.”

      “Perhaps if you explained more about what you are looking for, I’m an AI not a mind reader, Shepard.”

      “Et tú, EDI?”

      “‘Then fell Shepard!’ would be the next line if you wish to continue your parody of _Julius Ceasar._ My question though: why do you feel as though you have been betrayed by me?”

      Shepard sighed. “That’s not what I meant. I don’t feel betrayed by you. It just feels as though since I came back… I can’t get out of my own way and it seems everyone around me likes to remind me of that.”

      “Is there something wrong with your motor functions? Would you like me to get Doctor Lawson?”

      “No and no. It’s just a saying we humans have for feeling like we can’t do anything right and are sabotaging ourselves.”

      “I am not aware of any complaints about your activities. In fact, the entire galaxy seems to feel as though they are indebted to you. All of your recorded actions, aside from a few mishaps that occurred due to your inclination towards ‘deed before thought’ have shown consistent success.”

      “Well, that’s fantastic, isn’t it? I can save the galaxy but not my relationship,” Shepard’s biotics roiled. The color of the energy instantly grabbed her attention.

      “Commander, your biotics-”

      “-are a different color. Yes, I know. But I could careless right now EDI. Liara’s life is on the line here! And it’s all because I can’t stay dead!”

      The last line stopped EDI short. It was completely out of character. She switched tactics.

      “I am aware of the seriousness of Liara’s situation.” She said, when she had interfaced with the _Opolyon_ all of the communications sent from the ship had been backed up in her memory. “But I do know that Doctor T’Soni did what she did because she loves you.”

      “And that is what is going to get her killed! Her reasons aren’t enough to save her life! Love isn’t a good enough reason for Justicars and three of them are going to judge her. One of which I helped track down and kill her own daughter because Morinth violated Asari law. I had to stop her from committing jigai just so she wouldn’t be forced to kill her last child. Samara will not hesitate to execute her despite how she feels about Liara personally. She told me herself.”

      There was silence. EDI searched all the recorded outcomes of previous writs again and Shepard fell back into her own thoughts.

      “You are correct,” EDI finally spoke. “There are no recorded successful writs in which the petitioner was found justified in acting out of personal affinity and affection. Every Writ Tribunal found those reasons selfish and lacking as a defense.”

      Shepard sighed, “Told you.”

      “The successful writs proved that the petitioner’s actions directly or indirectly stopped wars, genocides and other galactically destabilizing events.”

      “If you listen to the news, they make it sound like her rescuing me was the galactic destabilizing event,” Shepard muttered.

      “It does look that way from the outside. But what if by taking you, she saved humanity from extinction?”

      Shepard’s defeated posture instantly changed as a slow, small smile formed on EDI’s face.

***

      “Extinction?” She laughed. “EDI, you do know what the word extinction means, right?”

      “Yes.”

      “You realize that, that is a very big claim.”

      “Yes.”

      “And you understand the concept behind legal defenses?”

      “Yes.”

      “So, you appreciate the fact that we would have to prove this in front of three Justicars who, by the way, don’t seem to like frivolity and especially when it comes to their time.”

      “Which is interesting considering how long Asari live-”

      “Okay. I need you to stay with me. Are you saying that you honestly think Liara might have saved humanity by kidnapping me?”

      “That is what I expressed, yes.”

      Shepard wagged her head in disbelief. “Okay, this I got to hear.”

      EDI smiled, “You have to quit talking first.”

      Turning to the terminal, she cued up a dizzy display of data. Lines of information and code ran down so quickly that Shepard started to get a headache simply trying to identify anything familiar in it.

      “What am I looking at?”

      “This is a recording of data pad operating log that Specialist Traynor was using when you first used your biotics to move the container I was in.”

      Shepard’s eyes widened. “This is when Traynor caught the Reaper code.”

      EDI nodded. “Yes. Specialist Traynor asked me to verify her hypothesis.”

      “And?”

      “And upon further analysis, I have determined it is not Reaper code. At least, it wasn’t originally.”

      “Originally? Now that sounds ominous, especially when it comes to the Reapers.”

      “Agreed.”

      “So, what was it _originally_? Prothean?”

      “No. But it is similar.”

      “Not Reaper, not Prothean.”

      “Any more guesses?” EDI quipped with a smile.

      “No,” Shepard panned. “Are you going to tell me?”

      “Only if you get on your knees and beg.”

      Shepard gaped at EDI.

      “It was a joke.”

      Shepard rolled her eyes and EDI continued:

      “Given the similarities of the script to both the Reaper and Prothean language, I determined that the engineers of the code must have existed at a proximal time as the Prothean Empire.”

      “Makes sense. What did you come up with?”

      “As you know, there aren’t many records from fifty-thousand years ago…”

      “EDI,” Shepard’s tone held a warning, “If you tell me you couldn’t find anything and I have to say the name Javik to you – I will seriously consider deactivating you.”

      The synthetic’s smile became bigger, “There’s the Commander Shepard I know and love.”

      “EDI come on, I don’t have- wait- did you just say you love me?”

      “Yes, but not in _that_ way.”

      “But, you love me? How is that possible?”

      A somber look replaced the amiability on EDI’s face. “I’ve wondered that as well. I am happier around you. I miss your presence if you are gone for long periods of time. And the knowledge that you will someday cease to exist creates an unsettling variance in my processing capacity. I’ve noticed that this occurs when I contemplate others as well.”

      Shepard nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like love.”

      “It’s a very- complicated, experience.”

      “You have no idea,” Shepard chuckled. “So, if you love me, you won’t keep me in suspense.”

      “Humans move quickly to try and exploit admissions of affection, don’t they?” EDI quipped. “I did, in fact, retain a backup of all data files ever created on the Normandy. Javik, at Doctor T’Soni’s request, began to create an index of all species and races that were wiped out during the harvesting of his cycle while he was on board.”

      “And?”

      “Without more extensive testing done on you and your biotics, I can’t be completely positive, but the only race that had the ability or desire to manipulate biotic amplifiers, dark matter eezo and ‘recode’ organic material was the Zha.”

      “The Zha? Like in the zha’til?”

      “The zha’til were the symbiotic AIs that the zha implanted and coded to enhance their own intelligence in a bid to save themselves from the inhospitable climate of their home world.”

      “That’s impossible. They went extinct fifty-thousand years ago. No one had heard of them until we thawed Javik. There is no way their tech lasted that long.”

      “I would agree with you if not for the fact that your biotic implants are seemingly the source of this code.”

      “Yeah, but, we still don’t know what _exactly_ is going on with my biotics or what effect this, whatever it is, has on them. There is no proof.”

      “Actually, there is.”

      EDI tapped a few keys and another window opened. This one showed what appeared to be a magnified section of a nervous system. Shepard tried to see anything special about it but aside from strange electrical charges within the nerve sheathe – there didn’t seem to be anything amiss.

      “Okay. It’s a nervous system. Is it mine?” Shepard asked.

      “No,” EDI replied, “it’s mine.”

***

     “How bad is it?”

     “Right now, it’s manageable but without the Geth’s assistance… I fear that this could quickly spiral out of control and we will lose hundreds of thousands.”

     Tali listened somberly to the news from Rannoch and it was not good. The Admiralty had taken into account that there would be some difficulties adjusting environmentally to their reclaimed home world but with the help of the Geth, the struggle to readapt had been mitigated.   But with them gone…

     “When did the first settlers get sick?”

     “About the time that you left on your _errand_.”

     A twang of guilt stabbed her in the chest. Her people were facing an epidemic and she was off, once again, gallivanting with Shepard and crew.

     “I’m sorry, Raan. It was important.”

     “I know. Or else you wouldn’t have gone,” Raan dropped her voice as though it would do any good keeping prying ears from their conversation. “Please tell me that your sudden departure had something to do with the rumors that Commander Shepard is alive.”

     Tali nodded once.

     “Keelah,” she breathed, “Perhaps the ancestors will yet smile on us.”

     “I can be back to Rannoch in a few days’ time-”

     “No,” Raan said rather abruptly. “We can handle it. Stay with Shepard, talk with her. If the last few years have taught me anything it is that if there is a way to stop this thing in its tracks, Shepard will find it. Raan out.”

     Tali stared at the empty space the admiral’s image had been. Normally, she would have shared Raan’s idealistic assertion that Shepard could and would find an answer to the new threat her people faced. However, her faith had been shaken.

     None of them talked about it, especially Liara. But Tali could tell in her friend’s behavior and posture that she was worried, almost excessively so, that the Shepard with them now was not the same as the one that charged into the Reaper conduit on Earth. Taku just hoped that Shepard would do what she did best and beat it.

     She sighed as she noticed that it was getting long in the afternoon.   EDI has requested her opinion on “something unusual” earlier in the day but after reviewing reports from Rannoch; she had spent the greater part of her time trying to help the Admiralty with reconstruction bids and supply requisitions. She exited the bridge in hopes that EDI was still aboard.

***

     “But how did you find it?”

     She was surprised to hear Shepard in engineering. Coming around a blast partition, she saw EDI and the Commander both intent on a holo-display.

     “When I ran a post inoperative diagnostic, I found that my weight had increased by approximately .01 milligrams.”

     “You found out because you gained weight?”

     “Yes and now I don’t have a thing to wear.”

     Shepard chuckled. “Yeah, I thought you looked different.”

     Tali announced her presence by clearing her throat.

     “Tali!” Shep greeted her.

     “Sorry, I’m late,” she apologized. “There were some things from Rannoch that I needed to take care of.”

     “Everything okay?”

     She glanced at Shepard, “No.”

     Shepard frowned, waiting for her to say more but she didn’t.   If it had been a few months earlier, she would have gladly shared the news from her home and simply waited while the Commander came up with a plan. But, now, there was far too much going on for things to be that simple.

     “Are you going to elaborate?” Shepard asked a perplexed look on her face.

     “No.”

     The perplexed turned to hurt which, much to her surprise, turned to cold stoicism.   The Commander said nothing, simply turned her attention back to the holo-display but Tali saw the briefest flash of Shepard’s dark biotics.

     “Shepard, I didn’t mean it like-”

     “No need to apologize Admiral. I understand operational security,” Shepard’s voice was low and drenched in professionalism. “Besides, EDI has discovered something of importance about herself.”

     Tali finally looked at the display, “What is it?”

     “It is a fully functioning, synthetic nervous system.”

     “Hold on,” Tali tapped the audio enhancer on the side of her mask to see if it was faulty, “I don’t think I heard that correctly. Did you say functioning _synthetic_ nervous system?”

     “That is correct.”

     “That is impossible.”

     “Apparently not,” Shepard panned.

     Tali glanced over at the Commander. The stoicism remained on her hardened features.

     “H-how?”

     "Specialist Traynor noticed that whatever is affecting Shepard’s biotics exhibits functions similar to that of nanites. When exposed to tech or synthetic components it demonstrates behavior that is almost sentient in nature. With no apparent source of input; the nanitic code targeted and reconstituted, in the likeness of Shepard’s own anatomical systems, all that was damaged within me by the Crucible energy blast.”

     Tali’s mind spun as she processed the implications of the impossible. Perhaps Raan was right. Shepard might yet still be the Ancestor’s answer to their plight. Maybe their engineers could construct some sort of networked amplifier that could enhance Shepard’s biotics… _Keelah! Shepard’s biotics!_

     “If that is what it did to you- what is it doing to Shepard?”

     Shepard snorted, “That’s the million credit question, isn’t it?”

     “Unknown. The _Opolyon_ is not equipped with the medical equipment necessary to be able to safely study the change in the Commander’s biotics or any causative side effects to her person. However, based on Doctor Lawson’s entries, it would seem that her biotics are consuming an extraordinary amount of element zero when deployed. So much so, she states her concern is that the cybernetic implants are drawing from Shepard’s own bioelectrical fields while her biotics burn through the eezo nodules in her nervous system.”

     “That explains the drain Liara, Jack and Miranda reported,” Tali said, folding her arms and setting her chin on her fist in thought.

     “Yes. It would seem that the drain is an autonomic survival response to the extreme stress Shepard’s biotics place on her neurological and cardiac systems.”

     “Well, that makes me feel loads better. I didn’t try to kill them on purpose. Yay.” Shepard growled.

     “Keelah, they already knew that Shepard.”

     “It doesn’t change the fact that I can’t be with or around other biotics without fear that I might turn into the cosmic version of a vampire,” she said miserably.

     “I’ve come to suck your biotics,” EDI said in a strange accent that Tali didn’t understand.

     “Not helping,” Shepard groused. The AI simply grinned infectiously.

     “There must be some way to mitigate the strain on Shepard’s system,” Tali said, pushing past the confusing exchange.

     EDI nodded. “Theoretically, infusions of medical grade eezo could prevent triggering the autonomous response. Unfortunately, the side effects of high quantities of element zero upon the human body have not been extensively studied.”

     “But they have been studied?” Tali asked.

     “Bet your fucking life they have,” Jack said, coming from behind them.

     “Jack. How long have you been there?” Tali asked.

     “Long enough to see where this conversation is headed,” Jack sauntered up.

     “What do you know Jack?” Shepard asked.

     “I know that Cerberus burned through a lot of fucking kids in those _studies_. I know that what they did to me was the result of that shit and that it’s an ugly fucking way to die.”

     “Jack, I hate to ask-” Shepard began but Subject Zero raised her hand to silence her.

     “Don’t worry, Shep. I kept the records. I’m sure Bitch and Blue and all their little blue bitches, will figure something out. If not, this planet will become ‘all you can eat’, in more than one way for you.”

     “Is that your version of a silver lining?”

     Jack shrugged, “Why not? You get taken out by asari commandos after you cut a path through their maidens in an erotic, eezo fueled, biotic rage; sounds better than getting fucking spaced by Collectors or blown to shit by fucking Reapers.”

     “You have a point.”

     “Of fucking course, I do. So, what’s your plan?”

     Shepard bit the corner of her lip in thought and then turned on her heel and strode purposefully towards the door.

     “Where are you going?” Tali called after her.

     “I’m going to see a doctor about a prescription.”

***

      “Come on, come on,” Shepard said as chime that notified the connection was pending, sounded for the third time. Finally, after the forth, it was established. At first, all she could see was darkness then a very tired sounding voice said: “Chakwas.”

      A smile sprung to her face. She hadn’t realized how much she had missed the rest of the Normandy’s crew until that moment.

      “Did I wake you up?” She asked banally.

      “Wh-?” The doctor’s exhausted face came into view and after a second, lit up. “By the gods! Shepard!”

      “That’s me.”

      “Oh my god, give an old woman a minute to put herself together, won’t you?”

      She listened delightedly as Karin moved about off screen talking excitedly to herself. Finally, the back light on the display grew brighter as the doctor turned on a light and moved back to the comm.

      “Am I so glad to see you! You have no idea what kind of chaos your survival and subsequent _departure_ has caused.”

      “I can imagine.”

      “After you left, Hackett was livid. He had the remainder of the Normandy’s crew detained and interrogated-”

      Shepard clenched her jaw against the surge of anger that passed through. Everyone she cared about and fought for was now suffering because of her. _You were supposed to sacrifice._

      “-I got off easy. I was only questioned for sixteen hours. Commander Williams was detained for over three weeks. Needless to say, I have resigned my commission with the Alliance.”

      “That son of a bitch,” Shepard growled, her biotics flaring.

      Chakwas face visibly paled at the sight. “Commander, what is wrong with your biotics?”

      “That’s actually the reason I called-”

      The prolonged silence that followed Shepard’s explanation did nothing to help her confidence in the half-formed planned she had in her head. Desperate to end the torturous silence, she asked: “Well, what do you think?”

      “Honestly? I think I need to be there.”

      She shook her head, “No. I can’t ask you to do that. It would put you at too much risk and I won’t let you do that for me.”

      “Don’t be a hypocrite,” Chakwas chastised.

      “What? I am _not_ a hypocrite.”

      “Aren’t you? You placed your life in jeopardy countless times to save others. You are the reason I am alive and not part of some Reaper abomination. Now, you are in a situation in which you need my help. Telling me not to come, when you risked the Normandy and crew in what should have been a suicide mission to save me, is barefaced hypocrisy.”

      She remained silent. The older woman was right, of course. It was part of the reason she had called. Chakwas would not mince words or try to save Shepard from her feelings. She would be straightforward, logical and most importantly, brutally honest.

      Finally, she nodded. “All right, I’ll see what I can do about getting you here.”

      “Thank you, Commander,” Chakwas said with a relieved sigh. “I was about to really put you to the nines and play the ‘do it for Liara and the baby’ card.”

      Shepard swore she felt her heart stop.

***

      “If you don’t stop pressing that fucking chime,” Aria growled by the seventh high toned ding, “I’m going to fucking cut your- Shepard! What a nice surprise.”

      “You’re going to cut my what?” The Commander asked lacing her arms and leaning back on a heel.

      “Well,” she replied, slowly letting one hand run down the edge of the loosely tied, sheer silver robe that covered her naked body. She watched as Shepard fought to keep eye contact instead of following the trail, “I was going to say ‘hand off’ but that would be a shame in your case. What can I _do_ for you?”

      “Got a minute?”

      “For you? I can string together several of them.”

      She locked the door behind Shepard and gestured towards a seat, opposite the divan she had been occupying, “Business or pleasure?”

      “What?” Shepard asked, confused.

      “You obviously want me for something, so again, business or pleasure?”

      “Business.”

      She rolled her eyes with a sigh. “That’s what it always is with you, isn’t it? Well, sorry my dear Commander, I am booked solid at the moment.”

      Shepard frowned, “Booked solid?”

      “I know you’ve only been up and about since breakfast, but surely you’ve noticed the small contingent of Blue Suns commandos prowling about in Benezia’s bushes?”

      “Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask about that. Why are you here?”

      “Aethyta called in a favor and I was obliged to repay,” she replied, not veiling the contempt in her voice.

      “How do you know the Matriarch?”

      She tried to smile but it ended up being more of a sneer. “Let’s just say we have a shared history.”

      “Did you two…?” Shepard’s trailing question left little room for interpretation.

      “Goddess, no!   Get your mind out of the gutter. She’s old enough to be my _mother_!” Aria recoiled.

      If no one had told the Commander about her relationship to Aethyta and Liara, then she certainly wasn’t about to.

      “Okay!” Shepard held up her hands, “Sorry. I just figured…”

      “Figured what? That because we’re asari we network by sleeping with each other? Are humans really that focused on sex? I thought it was just the males that were singular in their _drive_ , apparently it’s the whole damned lot of you.”

      “Are you complaining?”

      “Yes.”

      “Didn’t you just get done telling me you can’t help me on a _business_ matter because that’s all it ever is with me?” Shepard inquired with an arched brow.

      “That’s the reason why I’m complaining. If you were like the rest of your species, we wouldn’t actually be having this or _any_ conversation at this exact moment. But, I suppose if you were like the rest of your species, there wouldn’t be a galaxy to be having this moment in.”

      Shepard smiled and Aria felt her heart beat a bit faster, “You’re welcome.”

      “Ugh. Don’t let it go to your head.”

      The Commander looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, “What if I asked for a favor?”

      This perked her interest.

      “Then I suppose I would be more inclined to listen. Of course, I would only do that with the understanding that a favor begets a favor. Maybe even two, depending on the size of the thing asked.”

      “What kind of favors are we talking?” Shepard asked slowly.

      Aria clucked her tongue. “Uh, no, that’s not how this works. If you ask a favor of me, you have to be willing to give one in return, no questions.”

      How far was she willing to go? How much would she give? Did risk have a limit with her? What made Shepard, _Shepard_? The human had intrigued her like none other since their first meeting on Omega and in the years that had followed the fascination had just grown. And if Aria was correct in her assessment of the woman, she would soon, finally, have answers to the questions that had plagued her about the Commander.

      “Fine, one or two favors?”

      “That’s a question but to be fair I’ll tell you after you tell me what you want.”

      “Why do you get to ask questions?” Shepard grumbled.

      “Because, my dear Commander, I’m not the one asking for help.”

      “No one can accuse you of altruism.”

      A huge smile cut across her face. “No. They can’t.”

      Shepard looked at her warily for a moment. “I need your help getting someone off the Citadel and back here.”

      “Who?”

      “The Normandy’s doctor, Dr. Chakwas.”

      “Another doctor? How many do you need?”

      “As many as it takes to figure out what the fuck is wrong with me,” she replied.

      “Fair enough and this might seem a bit obvious but you do know that some of the best doctors in the galaxy are on Thessia?”

      “I know. But unless there are asari running around here that aren’t biotics and one of them just happens to be a doctor – I don’t think they can help.”

      Aria hummed thoughtfully at the memory. “There is that. I must say Shepard _that_ was a singular sensation, whatever it was.”

Shepard narrowed her eyes, “What are you talking about?”

      “I suppose they didn’t tell you. Yesterday, when they brought you in, there was a bit of a mishap and you ended up feeding on my biotics.”

      “Shit. Aria, I’m sorry if I hurt you,” she paled as she apologized.

_That’s adorable, she thinks she hurt me._ Aria resisted the urge to comfort the distraught woman.

      “You should apologize. Not because you hurt me but because you got me hot and wet and then you just passed out. Well, I suppose Jack helped with that last bit,” she finished with a small flourish of her hand. She had to beat down the giddiness she felt as she watched Shepard try to process.

      “It didn’t hurt you?”

      “No,” she laughed. “It didn’t. However, what you were doing with your biotics and your lips,” A warm shiver passed through her body at the memory. “Just as enjoyable as I remember.”

      Shepard slapped her hands to her face and groaning rubbed her eyes. “I’m taking it Liara was there.”

      “Do you think she would be anywhere else but at your side?”

      “Perfect,” she sighed.

      “Don’t worry. She’s a smart girl. She actually saved me from you. Well, Jack did the work but Liara was the brains, as usual.” The words visibly stung the Commander, just as she intended them to. She didn’t need Shepard spinning into self-pity or loathing.

      “But you say it didn’t hurt you, why?”

      “It probably has something to do with who my father was,” Aria replied.

      “Who was your father?”

      “An enkindler priest, by the face name of Eltyl.”

      “Your father was a hanar!”

      Her features hardened, “You have a problem with that?”

      “No. It’s just you don’t act like a hanar priest’s daughter.”

      “Known a lot of hanar priests?”

      “Well, no…”

      “Then maybe you shouldn’t make blanketing judgements of things in which you haven’t the first fucking clue about?” Aria drilled. She took a breath. “Besides, I take more after my mother anyways.”

      “Who was your mother?”

      She pinned Shepard with a stare that clearly implied she was not going to answer that question. Shepard raised her hands in surrender.

      “Fine, fine. Are you going to help me or not?”

      Aria settled back against the cushions, “Consider it done.”

      Shepard nodded and stood. “Thank you. How long do you think it will take?”

      Aria’s head teetered back and forth in thought, “Two maybe three days, if Aethyta will cough up the access codes to her relays.”

      “Do you think she will?”

      “For you and her favorite daughter- I’d bet Liara’s life on it.”

      Shepard looked at quizzically for a moment. She cursed herself for letting the bitterness seep into her tone. “Is there something wrong?”

      “Nope. Just want you to leave,” she lied.

      The Commander smirked, “Always a pleasure.”

      She raised her eyebrows dismissively. Shepard just shook her head and walked towards the door.

      “Oh and Shepard,” she called after her. The Commander stopped but didn’t turn around, “It’s going to cost you two favors.”

      “Whatever.”

      With that she was gone. A satisfied smile crept across her face. _Things might work out after all._

***

      She looked towards the door for the umpteenth time and then back to her data pad, just to re-read the same paragraph she had for the same number of glances she had shot towards the door. She sighed and tried to focus on the information in front of her but her thoughts kept returning to earlier that day as she had tried to grab a quick bite.

_Tali entered the kitchen looking like a quarian on a mission._

_“Good, just who I was looking for; you’re going to want to see this,” she said before Liara had the chance to even greet her. Tali walked straight over and held out a data pad._

_“What is it?” she asked, wiping the corner of her mouth with her napkin, more out of habit than necessity._

_“That is what Shepard and EDI have been up to all morning,” Tali replied, her stomach growling loudly. “Keelah, that looks good.”_

_“Help yourself.” Liara waved distractedly towards the full kitchen, her attention successfully diverted from her meal to the data pad in her hand._

_She couldn’t believe what she was reading: the development of a nervous system in EDI, the Zha and their symbiont AIs, the Zha’til and EDI’s speculation that Shepard was now the carrier of an extinct species’ sentient tech; the same tech that the Reapers had hacked and used to transform the Zha on a cellular level from an organic race to a twisted, hybrid synthetic one._

_“Goddess,” she breathed, her hand trembling as her mind raced with implications and what ifs. A loud clattering of cooking utensils followed by a curse brought her attention back around to Tali, who had nearly crawled bodily into cabinet. “What are you doing?”_

_“Looking for something I can eat,” Tali’s reply was muffled as she rooted around. “Shepard said that there was only asari cuisine in here. Do you by chance have those little tubes of fa’lous? I love that stuff.”_

_“In the pantry, third shelf,” Liara replied and then frowned. “I don’t know why Shepard would say that. Aethyta had both human and quarian fare stocked. I told her this, this morning.”_

_“Maybe she didn’t see it,” Tali shrugged, straightening and heading towards the pantry. Liara opened her mouth to disagree but snapped it shut when she remembered that she had been called away to business before even beginning to make good on her promise of breakfast._

_She said nothing, only inwardly kicked herself for not taking a few extra minutes to ensure Shepard had what she needed before rushing off and leaving her bond mate to try and adjust to unfamiliar surroundings. She just figured Shepard was used to adapting in extreme situations, so her childhood home would be a piece of cake… or so she had thought. Tali came back with a handful of spicy legume paste packets that was wildly popular with quarians and spilled them onto the dark, polished table._

_“Shepard could be like my uncle Dulen who would starve in front of a fully stocked food dispenser.”_

_Liara laughed, “Perhaps. Shep isn’t much of a cook but I’m sure her survival instincts are good enough she would figure something out.”_

_“Then maybe there is something wrong with her survival instincts?” Tali offered, tearing open one of the packets and sucking down the contents with a moan of approval. “You have to admit, Shepard hasn’t really been Shepard lately.”_

_The mirth died out in Liara’s spirit. Tali was right, of course. She had hoped that the strange behavior was a temporary matter and that Shepard would eventually come out of it. However, looking down at the data pad in her hand, she felt that hope die and in its stead, a growing sense of fear. Was she losing Shepard or had she already lost her?_

_She pushed the thought away and tuned out Tali’s rambling story about her uncle and his foibles, instead choosing to focus on EDI’s report. As she skimmed through, looking for anything that was useful instead of informative Liara noted that again, EDI had brought up the mention of potentially utilizing eezo to allay Shepard’s reaction to her own biotics. Something about it made her interject into her friend’s winding tale._

_“I’m sorry to interrupt Tali. Did EDI by chance mention anything about element zero to Shepard?”_

_Tali paused with a fourth fa’lous packet half way to her suit’s induction port, “You know, now that you mention it, she did.”_

_“Did Shepard say anything about it?” Liara asked slowly, hoping against the pounding in her chest that the answer wouldn’t be as she expected._

_“She didn’t say much. Just left shortly after saying she had to see ‘a doctor about a prescription’.”_

_“Shit,” Liara swore. Covering her mouth with shaking fingers, her mind swirled with possible scenarios, each one of them ending badly because of Shepard’s impulsiveness._

_Tali slowly lowered her arm, food forgotten. “Okay, now I see where that might be a problem.”_

      Liara had spent the rest of the afternoon hunting for her bond mate in between trying to work out her defense for the Writ. Much to her frustration and apprehension, Shepard had either turned off her omni-tool or it was no longer working. Either scenario bringing a different set of emotions with it:

      If she turned it off, _how dare she!_ What if Liara needed to find her or get a hold of her? Did Shepard stop and consider how much stress she had been under lately? Sure, she hadn’t told her _yet_ about the Writ and they hadn’t joined since the night before the battle for London, but Shepard wasn’t that obtuse, was she?

      Conversely, if her omni-tool wasn’t working, how dare she _not tell her!_ What if it was working before but then Shepard used her biotics and now both her, and her omni-tool were helplessly broken in a ditch somewhere? The thought made her throat tighten and it was all she could do not to fling the data pad across the room and start sobbing- which, as her hormones would have it, made her start crying.

      What had she been thinking? She knew that Aethyta wouldn’t approve. She would say that Liara was much too young to move into matronhood. That she shouldn’t throw the centuries of maidenhood she still had in front of her away simply because she fell deeply and madly in love human, an admirable human but a _human_ nonetheless.

      She miserably remembered the interspecies sexual education class that was mandatory for all secondary school aged asari. While the Ministry of Education would never admit it nor be so brazen as to say it: they essentially listed the known species by life expectancy and encouraged young asari maidens to make “ _practical_ ” and “ _wise_ ” choices in regards to their bond mates.

      Maidens were heartened by the matriarchs to choose their first bond mates from the longer lived species such as the krogen, elcor and hanar. Young asari maidens were encouraged to have children with the shorter lived races but it was recommended they waited until they were older, closer to the mid-point of their lives, starting around four hundred.

      In fact, being involved with a human at such a young age was considered foolish. But that wasn’t anything new. Liara was used to being considered foolish and ideological. Was that the reason she had done what she did? She hadn’t consciously planned on it.

      At the time, when she offered to join her consciousness to Shepard’s in the bombed out shell of the London FOB, she had done so in order to say goodbye. To make her peace with the universe and the woman she loved. She hadn’t planned on their survival. It didn’t seem like it would matter if she took all that she cherished about Shepard within herself and form her own life and love around it. It had been such a brief childish fantasy, the idea that the promise of a new life would force the universe to bend to her _will_ that they _both_ survive.

      The universe had acquiesced. Survived they had but at a cost that Liara still had yet to see the sum total of. Something was changing Shepard into _what_ she was terrified to think about. Before, Liara wouldn’t have hesitated to share what she had done with her bond mate but now…she didn’t know what kind of reaction she would get. And if the response was negative, Liara really didn’t know if she would be able to handle it. Not with everything else that had happened.

_Get it together, T’Soni!_ She chastised herself.

      She took a few deep breaths. She had to remember that the irrational, hormonal outbursts were merely a side effect of being pregnant. Expecting mothers often took on behaviors similar to what a pregnant female of their mate’s species might experience.

      Liara made a mental note to read up on the human gestation experience so that she could get ahead of the hormonal hijack. She needed to know what was standard. Was the desire to kill Shepard even as the very _thought_ made her want to weep uncontrollably, normal? Why did she feel so needy? She hated the feeling. She wanted it to stop. She had so many questions. She wanted her bond mate...

_Where the fuck are you?!_

***

      It was probably a bad idea.

      In fact, she was sure that absolutely _no one_ would have approved of what she was intending to do but she had to. She had to know what had happened to her. What the Reapers had done to her. She needed to understand what she capable of before she hurt, or worse, killed someone she loved.

      She could feel the hard, hydraulic syringe of eezo in the cargo pocket of her pants. It tapped rhythmically against her leg as Shepard picked her way across the immaculately manicured grounds, towards a grove of trees that hopefully would be far enough away to prevent any untoward mishaps with other biotics.

      Shepard had seen a few commandos, but for the most part they kept closer to the actual estate than the perimeter of the grounds. She just hoped that one of them didn’t get too curious before she could do what she had planned.

      As she entered the grove, the nightmares she had experienced during the invasion came flooding back to her: the boy, the chase, the voices. A chill coursed its way through her as she pushed the imagines away and fought against the desire to look for specter of the long dead child and pull him into her arms.

      By the time she reached a clearing, the burden of memories had become too much and Shepard dropped to her knees with a sharp exhalation of breath. Holding her hands to her ears in a futile bid to drown out the voices that had reasserted themselves again in her mind; she gritted her teeth and willed herself not to listen.

      _You were to sacrifice. Synthesis is the apex of all evolution. Ascend the Apex!_

      Searing agony tore down her arms. Her abdominal muscles spasmed as the rending pain burned through each muscle group. The sinew of flesh felt as if it was being wrenched from bone as each joint screamed in unified anguish.

      “ ** _What do you want?!”_** She screamed, locked in to her own mind.

      As if encouraged by her acknowledgment, the voices swirled and surged. Tears pooled at the corner of her eyes as the unintelligible screams and demands threatened to unhinge her sanity.

      _“Ascend the Apex!”_

      Pitching forward, Shepard wretched, the bile from her empty stomach burning the back of her throat as she desperately tried to catch a breath. She squeezed her eyes shut, frantic to find some sliver of relief in the torrent of pain that sluiced through her being.

      “Liara,” The whispered name became a prayer on her quivering lips.

      Much to her surprise and relief, the din quieted briefly. Shepard sucked down a deep breath and then another, trying to beat down the panic in her chest. Ever since she had suffocated to death in the cold vacuum of space, the thought of not being able to breathe brought bitter soul-crushing terror to her.

      _“Shepard,”_ The voice was so achingly familiar. _“Shepard!”_

      “Mordin?” She managed between tortured breaths.

      “ _Shepard. You have to ascend, imperative that you do so.”_

      “Why?”

      “ _Life must be preserved. The balance is lost. You chose chaos. You can choose order.”_

      “What are you talking about? What chaos?”

      There was silence and then a low, “ _War.”_

      Images of death and genocide flashed through her mind: humans against asari, asari against humans, krogan against the whole of the galaxy. The Council races gridlocked in a swansong of destruction and blood lust…all because of one selfish choice.

      “Stop, stop, _STOP_!” Shepard screamed.

      The images bled together in a crimson haze that burned behind her eyes before disappearing completely. Then the shadow of Mordin’s long silenced voice spoke again:

      “ _You must ascend, Shepard. It has to be you…”_

      “‘Someone else might get it wrong’,” she finished for him. With that, the noise and pain ebbed and Shepard’s senses slowly returned.

      Shivering, she realized that she curled on the dew soaked ground, the cool moisture a welcomed contrast to the heated feel of her skin. She didn’t move. Not right away. Instead, she opted to collect herself for a moment.

      It was the quiet sound of a twig snapping that brought her around fully. She froze. Years of combat experience told her that the sound was not a fleet footed woodland creature. It was the sound of someone trying to mask their approach. She snaked her hand halfway to her hip before she realized, much to her irritation, that she was not carrying her sidearm, or any weapon, for that matter. She cursed.

      Normally, being unarmed wouldn’t have phased her. Her biotics were weapons in of themselves. But, given the circumstances, Shepard wasn’t keen on the idea of using them only to die of a heart attack or seizure not three hundred yards from Liara’s childhood home. Liara would never forgive her. Doubly so if she found out that Shepard hadn’t bothered to tell anyone where she was going or what she had planned to do. Deciding that a direct approach was better than lying, literally, for whoever to stumble upon her – Shepard stood up, muscles screaming in protest.

      Her actions startled the unknown party. She heard a soft gasp followed by the sound of fabric lightly catching on the bark of a tree as her pursuer moved to cover. Intent on listening, it didn’t occur to Shepard that she was hearing things far beyond the limits of what the human ear should have been capable of.

      She heard another sound. This one was the muffled sound of a thermal clip being pre-seated, further to the left than the first. Shepard’s heart started to beat faster. The promise of imminent conflict sent a pleasurable rush of adrenaline to her brutalized frame as she rolled her shoulders and cracked the vertebrae of her neck with a slight turn and lift of her jaw first to one side, then the other.

      “You might as well come out,” Shepard spoke evenly, but her voice echoed strangely through the trees. “I know you’re there.”

      A moment later, she saw a lone figure step into the clearing in front of her. In the milky-silver light of the moon, she could see that it was an asari. But from the look of her, Shepard knew she had no affiliation with the Suns.

      “Commander Shepard, I presume?” She asked her tone conversational.

      “I think you already know the answer to that question,” Shepard replied.

      “Wow. Color me impressed. I would have never imagined in a million years that I would be standing in front of _the_ Commander Shepard. The galactic hero with the _largest_ bounty ever… I must have done something right to deserve this.”

      The Asari was stalling. Shepard could hear at least three others in the underbrush as they moved to flank her.

      “I wouldn’t have used the word _right-_ _stupid_ maybe, but not _right_.”

      An indignant howl brought a manic smile to Shepard’s face as the jab hit its mark. The high pitched whine of thermal clips sliding into place ratcheted her joy to ecstasy. Suddenly, all Shepard wanted was _this._

      More specifically, all she wanted was the bounty hunter with biotics flared to come a little bit closer…

      “Get her!” the hunter screamed.

***

_“Liara,”_

      She was nearly asleep when she heard her name called. On instinct, she reached towards the right hand side of the bed, half expecting her bond mate to be there but remembered she hadn’t seen Shep all day.

      “Shepard?” she called.

      She frowned when no response came. Liara knew she had heard her name. Had she been hearing things? She dismissed the idea. Thinking for a moment more, her frown deepened. _Could it be..?_ _No. It’s impossible, isn’t it?_   

      There was only one way to be sure.

      Closing her eyes, she summoned forth all of her memories involving Shepard. She even recalled Shepard’s memories that she had experienced in their melds. A carefully – ever so carefully – she pushed her mind forward, willing it to find a connection to her bond mate.

      She cried out in surprise and pain as a wave of blistering agony surged through her mind. Had she been standing, it would have forced her to her knees. Gritting her teeth against the assault on her senses, she pushed back. She willed her feelings for Shepard back through the weak connection: comfort, safety, love, before pulling away.

      Even as she closed her mind off to Shepard, she was racing for the door. Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. She didn’t slow at all as she rounded a corner and took the steps to the main floor two at a time, jumping the last three and nearly colliding with Jack at the bottom.

      “Whoa! Where’s the fire?” Jack asked catching Liara by the arms before they both ended up in a heap.

      “It’s Shepard,” she replied, hating the desperation in her tone.

      “What about Shep-”

      A thunderous blast shook the house. They exchanged a look before bolting towards the sound.

            ***

      She watched in fascinated detachment as the warp field came towards her. Normally, her brain would have screamed at her to move but much to her, and the bounty hunter’s surprise, she didn’t even bother to duck.

      A loud _crack_ echoed around the trees as the warp hit her square in the chest. It should have thrown her or at the very least, staggered her. It didn’t. Shepard lifted her hands up in front of her. She watched as the iridescence of the asari’s biotics traversed her skin only to be absorbed by the inky crimson of her own. She smiled as a pleasurable, hungry power manifested itself.

      “That all you got?” she asked wolfishly.

      “Fucking fire!” The hunter screamed indignantly.

      Shepard released a powerful shockwave in the direction of the leader before diving to one side. Coming up on her feet, she spun around noting the locations of two more assailants. As the first hail of bullets was released, Shepard picked the one closest to her; a maiden who had surrounded herself in a barrier, and charged. The explosion was deafening, the force of it obliterating the bounty hunter.

      She frowned as a fine red mist soaked her clothing. That wasn’t what she had wanted. Her eyes scanned the clearing for another target. She found one. She charged again. This time, she felt the solid crunch of bone shattering as she connected. No biotics. No explosion. The bounty hunter flew backwards, her back snapping and her body wrapping around a tree before sliding to the ground with a sickly thud.

      Panting, exhaustion beginning to creep in, Shepard turned again to find her next opponent. She saw the third of her would be captors turn and run like the devil back into the trees. She almost smiled at the overt display of cowardice when she felt two rounds tear through her shoulder and upper arm.

      “You fucking cunt! I will fucking kill you!” The leader screamed, stalking towards her firing her weapon to punctuate every word.

      The strain on her body was beginning to manifest. She didn’t have enough energy to launch an attack at the asari. And while anger was affecting the asari’s accuracy, eventually, she would be close enough to Shepard that it wouldn’t matter. And for the briefest of moments, she almost welcomed it. She closed her eyes, listening to curses accented by gunfire, waiting for the round that would finally connect.

      It never came.

      Instead, she heard the soft _thum_ of a biotic sphere settling around her. The bounty hunter growled angrily and tossed her weapon aside; the look on her face murderous and full of determination.

      “Enough!” Samara’s command echoed.

            ***

      If the first explosion had scared her, the second amplified her terror. Liara’s breath came hard as she barreled over the grounds and towards the sound of the fight. The sounds of staccato, relentless cracking of gunfire working like pistons, driving her legs faster.

      She could hear Jack struggling to keep up. There was a litany of curses as the biotic stumbled and tripped over uneven ground and gnarled roots. Part of her didn’t care about the obvious dangers of running through darkened woods towards an unknown threat. All that mattered was reaching Shepard.

      Ducking a low branch, she heard the building whine of a biotic charge before release followed by the reverberating _crack_ of flesh meeting force. She faltered for a moment. Desperately listening for another sound, _any_ sound. She prayed that it had been Shepard’s charge. Her hesitation didn’t last long as shots began to ring out again.

      _“You fucking cunt! I will fucking kill you!”_

      _No!_ Liara could see the clearing. She could see Shepard on her knees. Exhaustion etched over her body. She watched in horror as an asari commando, at least one who had training, strode towards her bond mate screaming as she fired round after round. There was too much distance, too many trees for Liara to use her own biotics. She made ready to bolt into the clearing when Jack caught her by the arm again.

      “Don’t!” She hissed.

      “Let go of me Jack or I swear I will take your arm with me,” she growled, her voice devoid of anything except cold vitriol. Her instincts demanding she destroy any obstacle between her and Shepard.

      “I’d like to see you try, Blue,” she shot back. “If you run out there like some fucking hero, you put yourself at risk. If you put yourself at risk, Shepard is going to do something fucking stupid and it will probably get her killed. Look at her!”

      Liara looked back in time to see a biotic sphere blossom around Shepard. Briefly lived relief flooded her as she watched her lover’s assailant toss her weapon aside and start towards her bond mate, intent on finishing what she had started with her bare hands.

      “ _Enough!_ ”

      Samara stepped from the trees, closest to Shepard and her attacker. Liara let out a breath that she didn’t know she had been holding and started forward.

      “Mind your own business, Justicar! I am within my right!” The asari screamed and launched a warp blast towards Samara. The justicar quickly countered, hurling a biotic pull. The opposing energies collided, exploded and hurled the asari commando back. She reached the barrier and pushed through it and skidded to a stop on her knees, inches from Shepard.

      Her heart stopped in her throat when she saw blood coating her bond mate’s left arm. Shepard’s eyes were glazed over, unseeing, the dark energy of her biotics pulsing through them with every heartbeat. With trembling fingers she reached towards Shepard’s face but stopped short. Fear for her safety and the safety of their unborn child overriding the urge to comfort her love.

      “Shepard?” She asked, her voice cracking with worry.

      There was no reaction at first and the fear that her bond mate was far beyond her help crashed over Liara.

      “Shepard, _please!_ ”

      Finally, after what felt like an eternity. Shep blinked once. It was a small thing, but it was enough. Shepard blinked again, dragging her eyes to meet hers.

      “ _Liara...pocket,”_ she replied telepathically and very much to Liara’s abject disbelief.

            ***

      “Is she okay?” Samara asked.

      “I don’t know,” Liara replied, somewhat desperately, patting down the sides of Shepard’s pants. She felt the hard outline of a syringe. She worked it from the pocket. She felt her heart sink when she pulled out the eezo. _What were you planning on doing with this, love?_

      Shepard didn’t respond. She teetered for a moment, her eyes shifting in and out of focus before rolling back into her head and pitching forward. Liara caught her against her chest and with a practiced hand, flicked the cap to the needle off and gently pressed the needle into her neck directly below the hypothalamic implant. There was the soft hiss of delivery just as Shepard’s body went rigid to seize.

      Liara held Shepard against her chest for a few tense moments, waiting for a seizure that never came. When she felt the taut muscles relax and her lover’s breathing even out, she gently lowered her to the ground.   She could hear the shouts and sounds of Aria’s commandos coming through the trees. Help would be there soon, but she had to know the extent of Shepard’s injuries before she decided what to do with the _bitch_ that tried to kill her.

      Hooking her fingers in the bloody, ragged hole that the bullet had torn open when it ripped into Shepard, she ripped the rest of the sleeve off with one quick movement. The blood that slicked Shepard’s arm was _dark._ She wasn’t an expert on human hematology but she had seen enough human injuries to know that the deep, almost purple, color was not normal. If she hadn’t known better, she would have sworn Shepard was a _bleeding_ asari.

      “That doesn’t look right,” Samara said, standing over them.

      Liara shook her head, “No. It doesn’t. But it also doesn’t look like she is still bleeding, at least, not profusely.”

      “Spread out! I want this _fucking_ place locked down! Don’t _fucking_ think for _one fucking_ second I’m not going to cut the crests off of the _fucking cunts_ who let this happen! What am I paying you for?!”

      Liara looked up to see Aria enter the clearing with a contingent of her commandos. Her sister strode purposefully towards her. _Goddess, how long will it take for me to get used to that fact?_

      “What happened?” she asked, her usual snarky-ness gone. It surprised the hell out of Liara. It almost sounded like Aria had a soul.

      Looking down at Shep, she said: “I-I don’t know…”

      “Bounty hunters,” Samara filled in simply. They both looked at her with similar expressions.

      “Shit,” Aria said, expressing what they both felt, “I thought there would be more time.”

      “It would seem that Shepard is more important to the Alliance than what we first believed,” Samara replied, looking thoughtfully down at Shepard’s unmoving form.

      The anger that she had been trying to suppress boiled over finally, “Really? Now you believe me?”

      Samara’s expression didn’t change she simply watched as Liara stood, “It was never a matter of disbelief, Doctor.”

      “Then what?”

      “There is still much that is yet unknown. However, I can speak for my sisters when I say that we will only hear the Writ when Shepard can speak in her own defense.”

      Liara fixed Samara with a look. “What do you mean ‘when Shepard can speak in her own defense’? I was the one that asked for the Writ. I am the Asari. Not Shepard!”

      “We will not speak of this now. Shepard is hurt and if I’m not mistaken; the last of Shepard’s attackers is coming around. Perhaps, this time would be better spent finding out what she knows?”

      Liara didn’t reply, simply held Samara’s gaze a moment longer before turning towards the direction she had seen the bounty hunter thrown.

      She could see Jack sauntering over to the stirring Asari, with her hands on her hips.

      “Well, well,” she said, slamming her hands down on the hunter’s chest and yanking her up, “What do we have here?”

      The asari was slightly injured and disoriented.

      “Put me down,” she said weakly.

      Jack _hmm_ -ed and then: “No.”

      “I’ll kill you, you fucking ape.”

      “You’re not in a position to be making threats,” Liara’s spoke first as she and Aria joined Jack, “And it would behoove you _not_ to insult my friends.”

      The bounty hunter’s derisive laughter boiled down to sputtering coughing. “These are your friends? I had heard rumors about you and the Commander. I didn’t think they were true. But, then again, what can be expected out of a pure blooded bitch?”

      Aria’s eyes widened as she cast a sideways glance at her sister.

      “What did you call me?” Liara ground out.

      The asari laughed again and then pushed her face closer to Liara’s. “You heard me, _pure blood._ ”

      All she saw was red through her vision. For the first time in the entirety of her life, Liara reared back with a twisted growl of rage, head butted the worthless shit squarely in the face. The resulting crack of bone and the torrent of blood from a broken nose did wonders to ease the bloodlust running through her at the inciting words.

      “Get this piece of shit out of my face. Take her back. Put her in the grounds workshop. I’ll deal with her _later,_ ” Liara ordered.

      Jack nodded with a smile, her actions apparently garnering something of respect from the roguish biotic. She whistled at a commando nearby for help with the now disoriented bounty hunter.

      “C’mon, dumb fuck!” Jack said grabbing hold of one of the hunter’s arms. She chuckled briefly and then leaned closer to the asari, “You realize you just insulted the Shadow Broker and tried to kill her girlfriend, right?”

      The bounty hunter’s eyes went wide. “I-I-I…I d-didn’t know!”

      “Well, now you do. And trust this ape when she says that you won’t make that, or _any_ mistake, e _ver_ again,” Jack whispered to the now terrified prisoner before dragging her away as she began to beg incoherently.

      “That was hot,” Aria said, licking her lips as she watched them leave. She turned to Liara, appreciation dancing in her eyes. “Who knew that the panty dropping badassery isn’t exclusive to Shepard? Well played, sis.”

      Her mouth fell open as Aria turned on her heel towards the commandos still searching the clearing. “Why is Commander Shepard still laying there? I will _fucking cap_ every single one of you _fucking dirt bags_ if the Commander isn’t off the ground and back to the house in the next _thirty seconds_.”

      Aria turned back to her as her women quickly gathered Shepard and started at a half trot through the woods. “I have a favor to ask, Liara.”

      Surprised and not just a bit overwhelmed by Aria’s apparent amiability and helpfulness.

      “Yes?”

      “When you interrogate that bitch-” She nodded in the direction Jack had gone. “Let me be there?”

      She found herself nodding slowly. “Okay.”

      “Excellent,” Aria said with a secret, satisfied smile.

      ***


	2. Lessons

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear Reader,
> 
> I know - the last chapter was 18,181 words. Needless to say, not all chapters will be that length. This chapter is about 1100. Haha. I know. Massive difference, but I'm still finding my sea legs with y'all again. Besides, this chapter is pretty dark and brutal. The next will be a happy medium in word count. LOL.
> 
> Hence the shortness -
> 
> Enjoy 
> 
> And for disclaimer - I make no money off of this.

 

* * *

 

     Benezia had been a passionate, progressive naturalist. Most of Liara’s childhood memories were set out of doors. Parks, natural wonders, sunsets, planetary magnetic storms were the back drop to many lessons her mother had taught her. Her mother had loved nature. And it was apparent even in the architecture of the estate’s workshop.

     The building itself was built into a small rising hill on the property, so as not to obstruct the view from the estate but the front of the structure had Doric columns, creating a small but stunning colonnade that was only visible when facing the building directly.

     There was more to Benezia than her ostensible asceticism. Like her daughter, the matriarch had her secrets, especially towards the end. And one of those secrets lay hidden within the deceptively simple workshop.

     Aria finally broke the silence that had settled between them after leaving the clearing. The commandos had taken Shepard back to the house and while her immediate desire was to check in on her bond mate, the more pressing matter was hanging near limp between Jack and one of Aria’s women.

     “I assume there is a reason you ordered her brought here and it, hopefully, has nothing to do with trimming the hedges.”

     A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth at the comment. “Yes and no. Benezia was very compartmentalized. She had a different space for all of her interests and projects. And it would seem that even while she was indoctrinated that aspect of her personality remained intact.”

     A pang of loss shot through her. She wished her mother was alive. She wished to fold herself into her mother’s warm arms and listen to her words of wisdom. She cursed the Reapers, the Collectors and the galaxy at large. Was life meant to be this hard?

     “Door’s locked,” Jack said as they approached.

     “I know. I have the only key,” Liara replied, laying her palm against the biometric scanner.

     The lock whirled, clicked and the door slid back with a light hiss. The lights automatically came up, revealing a very specific interior.

     On one side of the room was six-axis restraint table. Near the table was a large, locked cabinet. Two large ultraviolet lights that were adjustable in output faced the table. On the other side of the room there was a bank of display screens that were the hallmark of the Shadow Broker. The room was designed for one purpose: obtaining information, by any means necessary.

     Aria let out a low whistle.

     “Damn,” Jack affirmed.

     “Lock her in,” Liara ignored the approval from her morally questionable companions.

     Pulling up the displays, Liara’s fingers began to fly over the terminal’s keys.

     “What are you doing?” Aria asked, coming up beside her.

     “The first step is finding out who she is and who she works for,” Liara replied automatically, her mind working as fast as her fingers. “Unless you have a mole in your company of mercenaries, someone has gone to great lengths to find us.”

     Aria snorted, “None of my commandos would be so stupid as to betray me.”

    Liara glanced sideways, “Are you sure about that?”

     “No one can ever be entirely sure. But, I know my people. If they value their family, they won’t betray me.”

     “We shall soon find out,” was her only response.

     “Hey, Doc, she’s coming around,” Jack said.

     Liara typed in a few more commands and then turned around. The bounty hunter was slowly pulling herself back into consciousness. Normally, Liara would have felt some sort of empathy for her fellow asari but she had tried to kill the father of her child and that was unforgiveable.

     “Where..?” The bounty hunter began.

     “Jack?” Liara asked evenly.

     Jack’s fist connected with the asari’s face.

     Aria winced at the sound, “Damn Liara.”

     Liara looked at Aria squarely, “Jack.”

     The sound of bone meeting flesh echoed. Aria’s eyes widened and the gangster took an unconscious step backwards. Liara held her sister’s faltering gaze and then turned her attention to the bounty hunter, “Who hired you?”

     “W-what?”

     Liara shot a glance towards the psychotic biotic, who smiled briefly but bitterly and landed another blow.

     “Who hired you?”

     “I don’t-”

     “Jack, switch hands and use your biotics.”

     “You got it, Doc.”

     “-WAIT!”

     Jack landed the blow.

     “What the fuck?!” The bounty screamed, “I said wait!”

     “And I said-” Liara trailed off. Much to Jack’s credit she followed through with strong biotic right to the gut, “Who hired you?”

     “Tevos!”

     Liara held up a hand and walked towards the prisoner, “Tevos, you say?”

     The bounty hunter nodded in visible pain, blood flying from the movement. Moving closer, Liara reached out and gently traced down the side of the asari’s face and tilted her chin up until the broken gaze met hers, “Are you telling the truth?”

     The bounty hunter said nothing. Instead, she spit the blood into Liara’s face and laughed, “Wouldn’t you like to know?”

     “Actually, yes, I would.” Liara replied, not responding to the mess dripping from her features. Flaring her right hand, she enveloped the hunter’s right leg in a biotic field and with practiced precision, she snapped her hand closed and twisted rending the asari’s femur in the same motion.

     “Embrace eternity,” she said as a visceral scream tore from the bounty hunter’s throat.

     She plunged into the asari’s mind. She hunted, tore and ripped through the woman’s memories. When she found what she was looking for she jerked away from the connection.

     “She’s telling the truth,” Liara panted.

     “Holy shit, T’Soni,” Jack breathed.

     It was only then she saw what she had done. The hunter’s eyes were pooling with blood and her body twitched. She would live. But she would never be the same. _What have you done, little wing?”_

     “Take her to Lawson.”

     Even as the words came out of her mouth she wanted to vomit. What had she become?

     “Now I understand how the Shadow Broker has held power,” Aria said quietly.

     The softly spoken words were enough to drive the deepest of shame and regret into her heart. She turned and started towards the door, unable to look at her handiwork but Aria spoke and it cut her short.

     “Will you tell Shepard what you have done?”

     She hesitated, the regret in her chest surging, “No.”

     “Then perhaps it would have been better for her to die in truth than live to a lie.”

     She said nothing and simply stepped out into the midnight rain.

      ***


	3. Choices

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear Reader,
> 
> I apologize for the delay. Please! Enjoy.
> 
> Bendithio

* * *

 

            Shepard was asleep in her bed.

            The sight brought tears to her eyes. For the first time since their final night together before London; her bondmate, her love was where she was supposed to be.

            Quietly, though she doubted Shepard would wake up, she made her way over to the bed and carefully pulled back the covers. She made a mental note to find out who was in charge of Shep’s return to the estate. Whoever had done so had decided that the asari practice of ‘medigel and rest’ was in the best medicine and Liara couldn’t have been more grateful. For the moment, Shep almost looked peaceful.

            Even as her eyes swept over her bondmate’s resting form, soul numbing exhaustion overtook her. Not taking her eyes off of Shepard, for fear the moment might be a fatigued mirage, she stripped down to her underclothes and carefully picked her way over Shep. Gently, she lifted her bondmate’s arm and snuggled her back against her lover’s breast, wrapping the sculpted appendage around her own body.

            Sleep came quickly.

            _“Sweetie, don’t dig up the lawn. Your grandmother will be furious.”_

_Liara watched as her daughter dug playfully at the ground. Her crests held highlights of her father’s skin tone and while she had inherited Liara’s features, she had definitely inherited Shepard’s strong jaw and playful eyes._

_“Don’t be ridiculous, little wing. How could I get mad at such a perfect child?” Benezia said from beside her._

_“You hated it when I dug up people’s lawns,” Liara groused._

_Benezia smiled gently and Liara’s heart leapt even as it sank, “Perhaps I was wrong then?”_

_Liara said nothing._

_“I hope you know I did what I thought was best,” Benezia said, “Even if, in the end, it didn’t turn out well.”_

_“If it wasn’t for you mother, Shepard wouldn’t have been able to stop the Reapers the first time,” even as she spoke, she realized the sacrifice Benezia made._

_She turned to see her mother smiling at her._

_“Then perhaps there is hope for you and Shepard yet,” she said._

_“What do you mean?”_

_“Do you think that Shepard chose to let her body be taken over?”_

_“What are you talking about?” Liara demanded._

_“Shepard did what she thought was best,”_

_“I know.”_

_“So what if it didn’t turn out?”_

_“What are you talking about, mother?”_

_“Look,” she said._

_Liara followed the direction of Benezia’s eyes. Shepard was crouching next to their daughter. A smile graced her face that would light up a heart. But as her bondmate reached out towards their daughter, Liara noticed that the corded muscles of Shepard’s arm were no longer flesh but a smoky metallic alloy. Disturbed but even more intrigued, she started towards her family._

_“Hey, look who it is kiddo!” Shepard’s voice had a strange synthetic quality to it._

_“Shepard, what’s wrong with you?”_

_“There is nothing wrong with me. I’m the same as I ever was.”_

_“That’s not true. Look at your arm!”_

_Shep held out her hand, looking at it and then turning it over. Their daughter giggled, latched onto the alien appendage and promptly tried to bite the metal digits.   Her bondmate laughed._

_“Apparently J’naria doesn’t think anything is wrong,” she said, looking up at Liara._

_To her horror, Liara watched as the soft skin of her bondmate’s neck coalesced into the same alloy like substance as her arms. Liara took a step back._

_“I-I don’t…” she fumbled over her words and closed her eyes, willing the vision away._

_“ **Liara.** ”_

_She heard her name, spoken in Shepard’s normal voice. She opened her eyes._

_“ **Liara,** ” Shep said again, but her mouth did not move, “ **I have to show you.** ”_

            “ _Show me what?_ ”

            _The scene around her shifted and she found herself looking at a holographic projection of a young human boy. She doubled over as breathtaking pain radiated from her abdomen. Grunting, she looked down and noticed very red human blood oozing out from under her Alliance uniform._

_“Wake up.”_

_“What? Where am I?” Liara asked, gritting her teeth against the pain._

_“The Citadel, it’s my home.”_

_“Who are you?” she asked, looking around at the massive open room at the pinnacle of the space station._

_“I am the catalyst.”_

_“I thought the Citadel was the catalyst.”_

_“No, the Citadel is part of me,” the projection said._

_“I need to stop the Reapers. Do you know how I can do that?” Liara/Shepard asked._

_“Perhaps. I control the Reapers. They are my solution,” the translucent projection turned and started towards a large ramp that diverged into three separate paths. Holding her side tightly, she limped after the boy. Outside, she could see the desperate battle between the galaxy’s fleets and the Reapers._

_“Solution? To what?”_

_“Chaos.”_

_Such a deceptively simple word._

_“The created will always rebel against their creators. But we found a way to stop that from happening, a way to restore order for the next cycle.”_

_“By wiping out organic life?” she asked quietly._

_The projection stopped walking and turned around. “NO. We harvest advanced civilizations, leaving the younger ones alone.”_

_The boy turned again and resumed walking, “Just as we left your people alone, the last time we were here.”_

_“But you killed the rest,” she said. It wasn’t an accusation, simply a statement._

_“We helped them **ascend**_ _so they could make way for new life, storing the old life in reaper form.”_

_The projection stopped in front of a large window. A turian ship succumbed to damages and exploded in a silent, brilliant display, “I think we would rather keep our old form.”_

_“No. You can’t. Without us to stop it; synthetics would destroy all organics. We’ve created the cycle so that never happens. That’s the solution.”_

_“But you’re taking away our future. Without a future, we have no hope. Without hope, we might as well be machines, programmed to do what we’re told.”_

_“You have hope, more than you think. The fact that you are standing here; the first organic ever, proves it. But it also proves my solution won’t work anymore.”_

_“So, now what?” She asked, the pain depleting her energy._

_“We find a new solution,” he said simply._

_“Yeah? But how?”_

_“The Crucible changed me, created new possibilities.” The projection turned towards the broad ramp, “But I can’t make them happen. I know you thought about destroying us.”_

_Liara saw a vision of herself/Shepard walking towards a power pylon firing her sidearm for all it was worth._

_“You can wipe out all synthetic life if you want. Including the Geth and most of the technology you rely on. Even you are partly synthetic.”_

_The statement left no question as to her fate if she chose this path. However, that didn’t matter._

_“But the Reapers will be destroyed?” She asked hopefully._

_“Yes. But the peace won’t last. Soon, your children will create synthetics and the chaos will come back.”_

_“Maybe,” she replied. Her mind already made up._

_“Or, do you think you can control us?” The projection looked towards the left._

_Another vision: this one of Shepard holding on desperately to two control rods even as her life and soul were shredded. She dismissed this possibility. Absolute power meant absolute corruption._

_“You will die,” the projection continued, “But you will have absolute control over us…there is another solution, however.”_

_“Yeah?”_

_“Synthesis.”_

_“And that is?” she asked wearily. Part of her wished that the projection would get to the point so that she could hurry up and die to end the excruciating pain she was in._

_“Add your energy to the Crucible’s. Everything you are will be absorbed and then sent out. The chain reaction will combine all organic and synthetic life into a new framework, a new DNA.”_

_She looked at the center path, “I- I don’t know.”_

_“Why not?” The projection asked, “Synthetics are already apart of you. Can you imagine your life without them?”_

_The pain was so intense that she was doubled over completely now, “But there will be peace?”_

_Part of her wanted peace for the galaxy but the pain was so intense, the question became a personal one._

_But there was no answer to her question, at least not for her._

_“The cycle will end,” the boy stated, “synthesis is the final evolution of life but we need each other to make it happen.   You have a difficult decision. Releasing the energy of the Crucible **will** end the cycle but it will also destroy the mass relays. The paths are open but **you** have to choose.”_

_Pain colored her swirling vision. The projection stood by silently. Three choices confronted her. The future of the galaxy depended on her. What was the right decision? Thoughts, questions, reality; these swirled in her agony soaked mind. Finally, she made a choice…_

_She started forward._

_***_


	4. Of Communication

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Dear Reader,
> 
> I apologize for the time in between updates. I ran into a writer's block. So, instead of cursing it and suffering through it. I decided to switch gears and write about Dragon Age for a bit. A wonderful little story is evolving from that decision. And while that meant a week or so off from this story, it was enough for my brain to work out some of the kinks here.
> 
> So (barring any unforeseen circumstances) I think I will be alternating every other day on posts. Hopefully, I will be able to 'crutch' myself between the two and not fall into any horrible writing pitfalls.
> 
> Anyway, enough 'talking out loud' for me and without further ado - more reading for you.
> 
> Enjoy.
> 
> Feedback always welcome and it does in fact encourage the author to 'perform' if you give 'treats' by way of comments and commentary....just sayin'.

* * *

            She smelled coffee, the most awesome of all aromas. Opening her eyes, she saw Liara sitting at a desk in front of a large, picture window. For a moment, she just laid in bed, happy with the way things were at that very second.

            “I can feel you staring at me,” Liara said not looking up from her work.

            “Who said I was staring at you? Maybe I’m staring at the coffee beside you.”

            Liara laughed lightly, “Now that I can believe.”

            Standing, she brought the cup over to Shepard and handed it to her before taking a seat on the bed beside her, “How did you sleep?”

            Shep took a drink, shrugged and then winced. “Fine, I guess. Why does my shoulder hurt?”

            “You took two rounds to it last night,” Liara replied, her tone unreadable but not without concern.

            “Huh, well, that would explain it.”

            “How can you be so cavalier about it?” she admonished.

            “Honey, I’m not being cavalier. I just don’t remember.”

            “And that’s what troubles me the most.”

            Shepard frowned but said nothing as she watched Liara’s mind begin to wrap itself around whatever problem she was working through. Finally, she fixed Shep with a look, “I’m going to ask you some questions and please, Shepard, tell me _everything._ ”

            “All right,” she replied slowly not knowing how she should respond to the business side of her bondmate, “but only if you promise to do the same.”

            Liara nodded distractedly, “Fine.”

            “Fine,” She set her coffee aside. “Ask your questions.”

            “What were you doing in the woods last night with a syringe full of eezo?”

            Shepard blinked, “Wow. You’re not pulling punches.”

            “Answer the question, Shepard.”

            She took a deep breath, “I wanted to see what’s wrong with my biotics or, if nothing else, what’s wrong with me.”

            “Shepard…” Liara’s tone was somewhere between reproof and concern.

            “Don’t patronize me, Liara.   Are you seriously going to tell me you wouldn’t do the same thing? What if you couldn’t use your biotics? What if every time you did, you turned into some sort of abomination that tries to destroy everything it sees? What if I was pregnant and wanted absolutely nothing to do with you?”

            She fired off the questions like her service weapon. She hadn’t intended for the conversation to go so deep, so fast but heaven help her, she had been carrying the burden of unanswered questions around for so long that opening the gate released the torrent.

            Liara looked stricken, “Shepard, I-”

            “Answer the question, Liara.”

            “I don’t know!” she blurted out.

            An uneasy silence fell between them. For her part, Shepard felt like an ass for attacking Liara but on the other side of it, she was incredibly hurt that Liara hadn’t told her about the baby. Shepard reached out a hand and tentatively placed it on her bondmate’s thigh, “Listen, I’m sorry-”

            She was cut off when Liara let out a tight sob and threw her arms around Shepard’s neck, “I’m so sorry!”

            “I-” Shepard began, briefly taken aback by the sudden and extreme emotional outburst.

            Finally, she wrapped her arms around Liara tightly and held her close as her bondmate sobbed into her neck. They stayed that way for a few minutes. Liara finding comfort she had so desperately sought since the Reapers and Shepard taking solace in the fact that, if nothing else, she was still useful as a handkerchief.

            “I was going to tell you,” Liara said with a sniffle.

            “Oh? Before or after you told her father?” Shepard’s joke earned her a playful slap and a look of mock disapproval.

            “Things have just been difficult since you-”

            “Came back?”

            She gave a small nod.

            “So, you believe me?”

            Another nod as she drug her watery blue eyes up to meet Shepard’s, “I- I watched it happen.”

            Shepard frowned, “What do you mean ‘watched it happen’?”

            Liara straightened up, pulling herself together. “Last night, after…everything, Aria’s commandos dropped you off here. I fell asleep next to you and I had a dream. In it, I- you – were on the Citadel, talking with a hologram; a boy, the Catalyst.”

            She stiffened, remembering as her bondmate continued:

            “I saw what you had to do. The choice you had to make,” she looked intensely into Shepard’s eyes, “It was never a choice. Just an option on how your death would affect the universe.”

            Shepard gave a wryly smile to try and ease the tension, “Well. Joke’s on him. I’m still alive. So, the intelligence’s plan failed.”

            “Did it?”

            “What do you mean?”

            “I mean,” Liara said standing, “did the plan fail? You did actually die.”

            “Yeah, but I’m alive now.”

            “But you _were_ dead.”

            “Yes, but I’m – oh, I see. Since I’m not quite me, I might not have come back quite the same and you think that it was all part of the grand Catalyst’s plan.”

            “What else could it be?” Liara said earnestly. “What else could affect the strongest woman I know so profoundly?”

            Shepard gave a roguish smile, “Well, when you put it that way – wait, no! Listen, I’m pretty sure I’m still me-ish. Don’t say things like that!”

            “Why not?” Liara asked, confused.

            “Because, if I’m not _me_ that means that the real Shepard died back on the Citadel and whatever I am or whatever I am becoming is just a walking, talking, Shepard shaped weapon of mass destruction.”

            “Shepard, that’s not true!”

            “How would you know? When was the last time we joined? Right before all the shit hit the fan. Ever since then, I can’t get within ten feet of you when you use your biotics. So, again, how would you know?”

            Panic was starting to rise in Shepard’s chest. These things hadn’t occurred to her until that very moment. What if it was true? Liara sensed her distress and placed her hands on either side of Shepard’s face, directing the Commander’s gaze to her own. All Shepard saw in those endless blue depths was unconditional love.

            “I would know,” Liara said simply, quietly. She opened her mouth to protest but Liara continued: “I knew the first time you died. I felt it within my spirit that you were gone. That’s why I mourned. This time, it wasn’t the same. This time, it felt like you were far away but I could still feel you. That’s why I told Jack to keep looking.”

            “You entrusted my safety to Jack?” Shep balked.

            Liara nodded running her fingers through Shepard’s hair, “Yes. And I would do it again.”

            “So, if you don’t think I’m a walking, reaper time-bomb; what is happening to me?”

            “I’m not sure. I saw a lot of strange things in my dream.”

            “Like your mother?” Shepard offered, enjoying the feeling of Liara’s nails on her scalp.

            She stopped mid-caress, “How did you know?”

            “It wasn’t just _your_ dream…”

            “You mean we actually shared the dream?”

            Shepard nodded looking up at Liara, “Must of.”

            Liara frowned, “But that’s…I mean, there are only a handful of races that communicate telepathically.”

            “I’m taking it the asari aren’t one?”

            She sighed in frustration, “No. How long have we been together?”

            Shepard’s eyes rolled to the ceiling, “Well. If you don’t count the time I was dead or the time between Lawson bringing me back and the Shadow Broker’s base…a standard year and a few months?”

            “Really?” She asked and then silently did the math, “I guess you’re right. It seems longer than that.”

            “I _know_ ,” Shepard intoned.

            “Huh, well, I guess I won’t reprimand you on being completely clueless about asari autonomy and abilities,” she teased.

            “You’re too kind. Considering I enrolled in the ‘hands on’ program, my studies have been inconsistent, to say the least.”

            “That does sound serious,” Liara teased and placed a light kiss on Shepard’s lips. “I promise to rectify that once we get everything figured out.”

            “You better,” Shepard groused.

            “Aw, come on. It hasn’t been that long. You got laid yesterday.”

            “It’s not the same T’Soni and you know it,” she pointed out.

            Liara sighed, she could tell that her bondmate was feeling the strain of their intimate separation, “I know.”

            “So,” Shep continued not wanting to burden Liara anymore, “you were about to tell me who in the galaxy can communicate telepathically?”

            “Yes. The first ones that come to mind are the rachni- by the goddess!” Liara slapped her hand to her forehead, “How did I not make that connection?”

            “Wait, what?” Shepard asked confused.

            “Of course it would be the rachni – it only makes sense!” She keyed her omni-tool and began punching in commands, “I’m sorry Shepard. I have to make a call.”

            With a kiss on Shepard’s cheek, Liara was out the door and she was left alone, again.

            “Good talk,” she muttered as the door slid closed.


	5. Postulations & Propositions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear Reader,
> 
> You are in for a wonderful treat. I have actually worked out how the story ends. Which means more and longer posts since I now have a sense of direction and possibly purpose but I will try not to get ahead of myself when using such big words like "purpose".
> 
> Anyhow, it seems that this jumping between a space opera and a epic fantasy story is working well for both sides of my bipolar brain. Or, if nothing else, it is taming my natural Aries inclination to get bored...easily. Whatever it is, I'm not going to mess with it because there is no worst feeling in the world then the desire to write but the way to be blocked. Don't worry, I won't get too superstitious about it. I promise to change my socks.
> 
> ...Okay, now that I've rambled and you have read - time to read what you came here for...
> 
> Enjoy.
> 
> PS - As always, comments and feedback are always welcome and go a long ways towards "getting" the story you want. Feedback is intricate to creativity vis-a-vis writing.

* * *

     “It’s almost painful to watch you,” she said.

     She meant every word too. Aria had watched Shepard intermittently mill about the estate for most of the day. The Commander looked completely lost without a war to fight. It possibly wouldn’t have been so bad for the woman, except for the fact that the only other thing that kept her attention in the universe was always off doing s _omething_ else.

     “Is it that bad?” Shepard asked with a bitter laugh.

     “It’s sad almost to the point of pathetic,” she replied solemnly.

     “Thank you, Aria. You are ever the light shining directly in my eyes.”

     She laughed, “Come on now. I’m not that bad. I did come bearing good news.”

     “Oh?”

     “I received a message from one of my captains. Your Doctor Chakwas is safe and will be here by tomorrow morning.”

     The first real smile she had seen the Commander have finally lit upon the weary woman, “That’s great news.”

     “I figured you would be pleased. Now, about those favors you owe me…”

     Shepard groaned, “Of course. It wouldn’t be your style to let me _enjoy_ the moment.”

     “I’m hurt. You don’t even know what I was going to ask yet,” she pouted appropriately.

     “Aria it isn’t possible for you to be hurt.”

     The Commander's words had the exact opposite effect of her assertion but the gangster wasn’t about to let it show.

     “That is a baseless assumption, Commander. Just because I don’t run around with my heart on my sleeve doesn’t mean I don’t have one. _If you prick me, do I not bleed_ ?”

     “Shakespeare. Nice.”

     “I remember you quoting him once when we first met.”

     Shepard looked at her in surprise. “ _Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows._ I can’t believe you remember.”

     Aria shrugged, “The words and the speaker piqued my interest. It only follows that I would satiate my curiosity one way or another. If the speaker wasn’t going to cooperate then the words would have to do.”

     “And so you read Shakespeare.”

     “Each of the thirty-seven plays and every one of the sonnets…he had a gift. Too bad not all of you grunting mammals had such eloquence.”

     “You’re kidding,” Shepard slowly.

     “No. Literature is something of a passion for me; human, hanar, asari. It doesn’t matter. However, despite what others might say: there is no such fucking thing as krogan prose.”

     Shepard laughed, “I guess wonders really don’t cease. I wouldn’t have taken you for the sensitive type.”

     “How exactly does exercising literacy make me _sensitive?_ ”

     “Apparently it doesn’t.”

     “And once again, you do your species credit Commander.”

     Shepard shook her head in an attempt to hide the smile on her face. “Are you going to tell me what you want Aria?”

     She looked around the sprawling manner. Liara and her crew were somewhere in the house. Aria didn’t feel like pitching her plan when the walls had ears and also bugs.

     “Let’s take a walk. I would like to talk in private.”

     The Commander looked around, “There isn’t anyone here.”

     “Please, Shepard, even you can’t be that stupid. This is Shadow Broker’s childhood home.”

     “Good point.”

     The two headed out to the back portico that overlooked a meticulously manicured theatre. Shepard shook her head as they headed towards a secluded exedra.

     “I’m happy I only met Benezia once-”

     “And then you killed her. Hell of a first impression with the future in-laws, Shep.”

     “She tried to kill us first.”

     “Fair enough,” Aria agreed. “Although you only had the _pleasure_ of meeting Liara’s mother once I had the distinction of dealing with her a few times.”

     “And?”

     “And let’s just say that all of this,” she waved a hand about their opulent surroundings, “was just a ruse to throw off the general public and the privileged. The real Benezia was ruthless, calculating and cruel.”

     “That’s not how Liara tells it.”

     “Liara is- _was_ a child! What she remembers is colored by the lens of childhood innocence. She left for university at a young age. She didn’t see Benezia’s downward descent because like the rest of Thessia she only saw _this_.” She spread her arms towards the grandeur that surrounded them, “Money does not reflect morality.”

     “I suppose it doesn’t but I think you’re stalling Aria, which is very unlike you.”

     “I’m not stalling Shepard. I just think it’s fair that you know from whence tree your apple fell.”

     “Noted, now about this favor?”

     Aria leaned back and regarded Shepard coolly, “I want to meld with you.”

     “ _What?!”_

     “Oh don’t act so appalled. I didn’t say we were going to have sex. Liara has explained that melding doesn’t necessarily mean we are going to fuck, correct?”

     “Well, yeah, I know that. But, my biotics-”

     “Again, Shepard, whatever is going on with them does not affect me. The way I see it- you and yours don’t really have any idea what is going on with you. My species has the means to look into places that machines can’t. _You_ need someone that can go in and take a look around without worrying that you’re going to use them as a snack.”

     She saw Shepard turning the argument over in her mind. With any luck, the Commander would see reason and agree to it.

     “What about Liara?” Shepard asked quietly.

     “What about her? She doesn’t need to know. She won’t know unless you tell her and if I am correct, there is no reason why she would be upset if you were able to come back with answers. Aren’t you tired of being the damsel in distress, waiting for someone to come and rescue you? You should be because it’s not very flattering or attractive on you.”

     Secretly, Aria’s spirit leapt for joy when she saw the look of resolve appear on the Commander’s features. _Good ol’ Shepard can’t stand the thought of being perceived as weak._

     “You have a point. Maybe that’s why Liara has been so…” she trailed off, realizing that she was speaking aloud.

     Aria had to suppress a self-satisfied smile. Her postulation that there was trouble in Shepard-T’Soni paradise was verified by the Commander’s unintended omission. She sat by quietly, waiting for Shepard to bite at the hook. Finally, the Commander made up her mind and nodded.

     “Okay, let’s do it. But not for any other reason than I just want whatever is happening to be over so that Liara and I can move on with our lives.”

     “Whatever you have to tell yourself,” Aria muttered.

     “What did you say?” Shepard looked at her confused.

     “I said: quit being so hard on yourself,” she spoke loudly and slowly, jabbing at Shepard in case she actually had heard her.

     The look eased on the Commander’s face and Aria inwardly breathed a sigh of relief. She stood.

     “Listen. My women have set up temporary berthing near the private dock. Meet me there in a few hours. I have some things I have to do first.”

     “Like what?” Shepard asked as she turned to walk away.

     “Like buying candles because apparently this is your first time... stop acting like such a girl,” She tossed over her shoulder before walking away with an extra swing to her hips.


	6. 2181 Despoina

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear Reader,
> 
> This chapter has spoilers for the Leviathan DLC. So, if you haven't played it. I recommend it. Not on Nightmare mode, however, it takes forever to get through...stupid Banshees.
> 
> I hope all is well with you. Feedback is always welcome. 
> 
> And away we go....

* * *

          Liara groaned, arching her back. She glanced at the time display in the corner of her terminal and sighed. She had been at it for hours and still she hadn’t had any luck finding Ann Bryson.   Logically, she knew, that there was a very good chance she hadn’t survived all the events of the past year. But she didn’t want to give up, not yet.

          Whatever was happening to Shepard was singular, unique. However, nothing existed in a vacuum. There were clues, which meant there was evidence ergo someone knew something. And even if it was only a piece here, a trace there; she would find the information and put it all together. She would save Shepard, even if that meant breaking every leg in the galaxy to do it.

          She frowned. Not for the first time that day, she wondered if she should fill Shepard in on the details of the night before. At the very least, she needed to go and try to explain what happened to Lawson. She could only imagine the human was none too thrilled about resetting a femoral compound fracture.

          Liara stepped from her personal office aboard the _Opolyon_ and nearly collided with EDI.

          “Oh! EDI. I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there.”

          The synthetic smiled, “Of course you didn’t. That would require ocular abilities far beyond that of an asari.”

          Liara gave a befuddled smile and shook her head, “Is there something I can help you with?”

          “Yes. I noticed you have been trying to reach Dr. Bryson without success.”

          “Are you spying on me?” Liara asked playfully.

          “No, I am simply interfaced with the _Opolyon’s_ systems. It seemed the most logical course of action since it is my new home and you are my new captain.”

          “Am I?” Liara’s smile broadened.

          “Yes.”

          “Then I suppose you weren’t spying on me,” she teased.

          “No.”

          “Indeed,” she laughed. “Yes. I’ve been trying to find Dr. Bryson. I have some questions concerning the rachni. More specifically their communication.”

          “The rachni communicate telepathically via pheromone secretions from the queen.”

          Liara sighed. “I know. My question was more of: is it possible that a human could somehow pick up this ability?”

          “Explain.”

          She hesitated. While she knew EDI would not hold her in any sort of judgment or ridicule, somehow it felt weirdly personal explaining the events of the night before.

          “Last night, I knew Shepard was in trouble because I heard her call my name _in my head_. Later, we shared the same dream. But we didn’t just share it, we experienced it together. Obviously it has to be some sort of telepathy.”

          “And you hypothesize that perhaps Shepard’s interactions with the rachni years ago has something to do with this?”

          “When you say it that way – no,” Liara conceded. She felt like crying. _Damn humans, damn Shepard._

          “Are you alright, Liara?” EDI asked concerned.

          “Yes. It’s just hormones. And Shepard. And everything going wrong. And I feel fat! Why do I feel fat?!”

          “It appears you are beginning to exhibit behavior similar to that of a human female in the early stages of her second trimester.”

          “What does that mean?” Liara sniffled.

          “It means, I’m sorry.”

          The tears came harder after a small wail of despair. EDI wrapped her arms around the distraught asari and held onto her until the tidal wave of emotion passed.

          “Thank you EDI,” Liara said after she had calmed down and her tone returned to normal. “I never know when the waves of hormonal humanity are going to hit. I have no idea how the human race has managed to survive this long. All I feel as an expectant mother of a half-human child is the need to throw myself, or Shepard, off a cliff at any given moment. Is that normal?”

          “According to all the information I can find on human pregnancy- yes, that is very common.”

          “Great,” she muttered miserably.

          “Don’t worry, Dr. T’Soni. Generally, there is minimal homicide in most human pregnancies. I’m sure you’ll pull through just fine. If not, you can always plead temporary insanity because of Shepard.”

          “I’ve been using that excuse for the last four years.”

          “At least your defense will be consistent.”

          Liara laughed, “I suppose that’s something. Then again, most of my fellow asari would say I was already crazy for getting tangled up with a human at my age.”

          “Tangled up,” EDI repeated as her emotiveness left, replaced by a blankness.

          “EDI?”

          “One moment,” she sounded like a factory AI.

          For a long minute, Liara stared at her friend who stood stock still. She found herself disturbed by the lack of movement or expression from EDI. Since Shepard had revived her, the AI had begun to act even _more_ human. Almost Shepard-esque in certain mannerisms. But seeing her in a processing state, which should have been the norm, Liara now found herself completely unsettled by it.

          A gnawing fear crept low into her belly as she remembered her dream. Her bondmate’s flesh transforming into a sleek, synthetic version of itself. Was it a portent? A warning? Suddenly, in her mind, it was no longer EDI standing there but Shepard. She closed her eyes and willed the fear away.

          “Dr. T’Soni?”

          She opened her eyes. EDI was herself again and looking at her with worry. Inwardly, Liara breathed a sigh of relief.

          “Yes, sorry…I felt a little dizzy.”

          “Would you like to lay down for a bit? How much rest have you been getting? Have you been getting enough to eat?” The AI began to fire off concerned questions, much like Shepard.

          Liara raised a silencing hand and forced a smile, “Really, EDI, I’m fine. Now, are you going to tell me what _that_ was about?”

          EDI looked puzzled by Liara’s deflection but switched gears to answer her question.

          “Yes. When you mentioned becoming ‘tangled’ it reminded me of our encounter with Ann and her father.”

          “Leviathan,” she said, quickly picking up on EDI’s line of thought.

          “That is correct. Leviathan uses a quasi-QEC pulse to indoctrinate other species. Telepathic communication and control are only possible after the intended inductee is exposed to the pulse for an unspecified amount of time. However, the effects are irreversible. Once the connection is made, it is permanent.”

          “By the goddess,” she breathed as the memory returned in crystal clarity.

          _Rounds whizzed past her as she returned fire on the reaper forces. The sea was getting worse and it was only a matter of time before the Reaper actually showed up. Shepard had disappeared nearly half an hour before into the dark brine._

_**You better be alive.** She thought as she hurled a warp field towards two advancing brutes._

_The mech burst up and out of the water and landed, shakily on the slick pilings only a few meters from the brutes. The hatch opened and Shepard fell out of the mech onto her knees._

_One of the brutes turned its head, fixing its monstrous stare on the Commander. Fear gripped Liara. Shepard pushed herself up unsteadily. She hadn’t even noticed the two massive, murderous creatures behind her. Liara wanted to cry out but her terror overtook her voice and she watched in horror as Shepard fell to her knees again._

_The brute closest to the Commander pulled its gargantuan arm back, the trident pinchers spreading, readying for the kill. **Goddess, NO!**_

_A strange energy filled the air. Time felt as though it had been suspended. Suddenly, the brute who was ready to crush Shepard, turned its head and its hatred on its fellow and attacked._

_Time shot forward again.   Liara and Garrus shared a look and without a word, Liara began to lay down covering fire as the turian solider sprinted for their Commander._

_“Shepard’s back. Cortez talk to me,” Garrus’ voice came over her earpiece. She continued to fire round after round into the fighting brutes as Garrus helped Shepard walk._

_“Good to go. I don’t know what the Commander did but the pulse is offline,” Cortez replied as he landed the shuttle._

_Liara fell back, firing as she did. Once the Commander was safely on the deck of the shuttle, she jumped aboard as well. Cortez gunned the engines and brought them about._

_“Hold on! We got a Reaper inbound!” Cortez reported._

_She looked at the forward display, at the exact moment that the Reaper’s arms opened wide to strike. She felt the same strange energy again and suddenly, the Reaper violently altered course – as if some unseen force had flicked it away, hurtling it into the tumultuous sea._

_Danger passed, she immediately reached out to Shepard. Her skin was ashen, her lips blue. Blood ran from her nose, and..._

_“Goddess, she’s freezing!” Liara hated the panic in her voice. **Come back to me!**_

_As by some miraculous intervention, Shepard began to cough and sputter for air. Liara reached out to steady her but the Commander shied away from her touch, trying to catch her breath._

_“I’m okay. I’m okay.” Shepard assured her, pulling herself up onto a bench._

_The Commander looked shaken and actually, quite ill. Liara, still on the deck, placed her hands on either of Shepard’s knees. Catching her lover’s gaze, she noticed that Shepard’s pupils were massive. In fact, nearly all of her iris had disappeared into an inky blackness. It unnerved her but she held her lover’s eyes._

_“Don’t ever do that again.”_

          “Goddess,” she looked at EDI.

          “Are you promoting me, Captain?”

          “What? No. I mean, cut it out EDI.”

          “Sorry. I can’t seem to help myself. Specialist Traynor has started calling my inappropriately timed humor – Shepardisms.”

          “We’ll have to get that looked at.”

          “Agreed.”

          “Listen, EDI. I have to go talk with Miranda about something, but do you think you could compile all of the data files you have from Bryson’s lab and our mission to 2181 Despoina?”

          “Yes Captain,” she said with a smile. “Is there anything else you would like me to do?”

          “Yeah. If you see Shepard let her know I’m looking for her.”

          ***


	7. Hidden in Dark Corners

* * *

            Shepard let herself into the Blue Suns berthing. All around the portable field shelter candles burned. _Fucking Aria._ She didn’t see the gangster, but she had no doubt that she knew Shepard was there.

            “I see you made it,” Aria said, coming around a partitioned wall.

            “I thought you were joking about the candles.”

            “You should know that I _never_ joke.”

            “Well, you should know that this isn’t my first time,” she retorted.

            “Shut up, Shepard. The candles aren’t actually for you, you twat. They are for me.”

            “Oh,” she muttered sheepishly, lost as for what to say.

            Aria sighed in exasperation, “It helps me focus. Given who my father was I have a unique ability in that I can actually interpret bioelectrical rhythms and pulses.”

            Shepard stared at her blankly. She didn’t have the first clue what Aria was talking about. “Can’t all asari do that?”

            She rolled her eyes. “No. Shepard. They can’t. The Hanar communicate by bio luminal patterns. If you stop and think about it. The light spectrum is universal so it only figures that the bioelectrical patterns could be interpreted as well.”

            “So…you can read my aura?”

            “Shutthefuckup and sit down,” she ordered pointing to one in a set of two chairs.

            Doing as she was told, Shepard sat down and for the first time in the whole process, she began to have doubts. What if Aria was wrong about her biotics? What if it was a trap? What would Liara say?

            “Are you ready?”

            “I-I don’t know.”

            Aria took the seat opposite of her, “Now what?”

            “I-I just-”

            “Spit it out Commander. We don’t have all day to embrace eternity. Do you want something? Need something? Would you like me to read you some poetry? Perhaps a glass of wine? How can _I_ make this easier for _you_ , princess?”

            The barbed jabs worked and Shepard beat back her reservations about the situation with a nervous laugh. “Just try not to rearrange too much in my head.”

            “Shepard,” she sighed. “For that to happen, you would actually have to have something to rearrange. Now. Shut up.”

            Arranging herself so that her legs were on either side of Shepard’s knees, she leaned forward grabbing both of the Commander’s wrists.   Shepard tried to relax despite the instinct to break herself free from Aria’s grasp. The gangster closed her eyes and when she opened them, Shepard felt herself being pulled into the meld.

            “Embrace eternity, Commander.”

            She felt a slight tension at her temples like the start of a headache. Her vision shifted as their surroundings fell away. The pressure increased until she heard her ears pop, and just like that, she felt Aria’s presence in her mind.

            “Well,” Aria said looking around the ‘void’ they stood in. “Liara trained you well. Human minds tend to put up more resistance than-”

            The soul shriveling shriek of a banshee’s cry echoed violently in Shepard’s mind. The neutral, pastel soft colors of the void coalesced into churning, crimson darkness. Aria clapped her hands over her ears and looked at Shepard in horror.

            “What the fuck!” she yelled over the growing din.

            Shepard just shrugged, nonplused, looking around at the darkness even as it began to pool around her feet searching for a way into the Commander.

            “Shepard! Do something!” she screamed.

            The Commander didn’t move.

            Gritting her teeth, the Pirate Queen let go of her ears and grabbed hold of Shepard’s arms. Struggling to maintain her focus, Aria gathered her own energy and deployed a psychic version of her biotic lash.  The darkness receded for a moment and Shepard seemed to come back to herself.

            “What in the fuck was that?” Aria panted.

            “I tried to warn you.”

            “Warn me?! You didn’t say shit about having every dark hell in your head!” she accused.

            “I said, my biotics-”

            “Exactly. You said your biotics were fucked up. You didn’t say shit about your fucking mind!”

            “Hey! My brain just happens to be connected to my nervous system, which is connected to my biotics. Excuse the hell out of me for being human and not coming equipped with wholly organic biotic abilities. Or did you forget that we are a ‘lesser evolved’ species?”

            “Perhaps I forgot that _you_ came from a lesser evolved species, yes. Fucking humans always making things fucking harder than they need to be,” she muttered, crossing her arms.

            “Can you help me or not?” Shepard demanded.

            “Yes, I can help you.” Aria replied snidely. “Have you ever seen me do anything half-assed?”

            “You trying to seduce me.”

            “I have never _tried_ to seduce you. If I wanted you, I would have you. End of story. Don’t confuse harmless flirting with legitimate intention, you ass...”

            Shepard grinned at the reaction she provoked. Aria realized she had taken the bait.

            “Oh, I’m going to fucking kill you.”

            “Got you to stop worrying about all the dark little demons running around in my brain pan, didn’t it?”

            “That doesn’t mean I’m not going to kill you,” she replied sweetly.

            “You haven’t done it yet, so I’m thinking you won’t.”

            “Oh, but that’s where you’re mistaken. I have your entire lifespan to plan and execute your death.”

            “Will it be today?”

            “No.”

            “Then less talking, more fixing. I don’t know how long your lash will hold out against…whatever. Speaking of, how did you do that?”

            “Do what?”

            “Use your, uh, biotics in my head.”

            Aria took a deep breath. “All action is first thought, Shepard. If I can walk around and speak to you in this space, I can use my biotics. I’m not actually using them. Just like I’m not actually walking around inside this insidious mess you call a mind. But, for all intents and purposes, I am still capable of these things.”

            “Then why can’t all asari do it?”

            “Because not all asari are the daughter of a hanar priest. Trust me. If you had to listen to ‘this one’ talk in third person for a hundred years, you would have spent most of your childhood in meditation too.”

            “Point taken. So, what’s the plan?”

            “Plan?” Aria laughed. “I have to go deeper.”

            “Deeper? What do you mean deeper? How much deeper?”

            “I can’t see anything with all this,” she waved her hand towards the cold darkness that lurked just beyond the small space she had created.

            “Okay. But what do you mean deeper?”

            “I have to go beyond your conscious to your subconscious. To the genetic level of your existence.”

            She frowned. “Why does that sound familiar?”

            “Because all asari can actually do it.”

            “Yeah, but-”

            “Do you want my help or not?”

            “Yes.”

            “Then stop pestering me with questions and let me do what I came here to do.” Aria’s short patience was wearing thin.

            “Fine.”

            “Fine,” she repeated moving closer to the Commander.

            Shep tried to suppress the arousal that naturally came with Aria’s proximity. But, much to the Commander’s chagrin, she was unable to keep it from surfacing. The Pirate Queen’s delighted laugh made her blush furiously.

            “Why Commander! I had always suspected as much,” Aria’s tone took on a husky quality that did nothing to stop the desire that was beating a path upwards through her chest. “But I had no idea it was this close to the surface.”

            “Which is probably the reason why I’ve never allowed you into my head. Quit gloating and do whatever it is you’re going to do.” She spoke quickly.  She could have sworn she felt Aria’s body heat as she moved even closer.

            “Poor Commander Shepard,” she reached up and ran her fingers lightly through Shepard’s hair. “So frustrated. So angry. So… _unsatisfied_. Tell me, does Liara know?”

            “Leave her out of it,” she tried to put a tone of authority behind it but her voice was much too shaky.

            “As you wish,” she giggled, her eyes dancing playfully over the Commander’s features. “There is one more thing before we do this.”

            “Oh, what’s that?”

            “I’m calling in my second favor…”

            “Which is?” Shepard ground out.

            “If and when the time comes that I drop off the galactic map, don’t try and find me.”

            “Deal,” she agreed quickly, desperate to be done.

            A very pleased smile graced Aria’s face, “I love it when you obey me without question. It’s so fucking hot.”

            Without warning, she pulled Shepard into a blistering kiss.

            ***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come on! You had to have seen that one coming! LoL
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the update.
> 
> As always, feedback welcome. In fact, preferred. It's nice to get a sense for how you, dear reader, are feeling about the progression of the story. Is it lacking anything? Is it dragging? How are you feeling? 
> 
> Have a wonderful day, my friend. :)


	8. A Meeting of the Minds

* * *

      The reports were endless.

      Miranda closed out one medical record and opened another. The test results were the same. Every human biotic that had survived the Crucible blast had severely diminished biotic capabilities. Under stress test conditions, the biotic implants failed with over use, killing the subject. She sighed and closed out the file. Her future wasn’t looking too bright.

      She pushed back from the terminal and pinched the bridge of her nose to ease the encroaching headache. She didn’t have the first clue where to begin to look for solutions. Being cut off from the Earth Alliance was an informational nightmare. She knew half of the news coming from Sol was Alliance propaganda and the other half was misinformation and half-truths designed to rally mankind around the flag of Humanity once more.

      Normally, in a situation like this, she would be two bottles of wine into _not_ caring. Unfortunately her life and the quality of it was at stake. Ignoring it would be to her own detriment. However, there was a silver lining in all of it, Doctor Chakwas had contacted her. Words could not describe her surprise to hear from the Normandy’s doctor. While they had never really been friends, they weren’t enemies. Both women, both professionals, both with a job to do and the central element to their commonality was their devotion to Shepard.

      _En route to your location. Heard about the boss’ problems. Attached are some files that will make for depressing reading.   The Captain assures me we will be there post haste._ _–_ _K.C_ _–_ _MD_

      And true to form, Chakwas had not exaggerated the “depressing” part. Miranda hoped that between the two of them and (though she hated to admit it) T’Soni, they would be able to head this thing off. If not, it would have been better if both she and Shepard had been killed in battle, instead of wasting away in a slow death.

      The door of the med-bay opened, opening her eyes she saw Liara. Miranda groaned inwardly but maintained her professionalism.

      “Dr. T’Soni. You probably won’t believe me when I say this but- you are just the person I wanted to see.”

      Liara looked as shocked hearing the words as Miranda did saying them.

      “Is this about last night?”

      Miranda furrowed her brow. “Last night? Uh, no. It’s about Karin Chakwas.”

      The surprised confusion didn’t leave Liara. “What about her?”

      “I received a message from her. She supplied me with several dozen medical dossiers that she managed to ‘appropriate’ from the Alliance. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind taking a look at them.”

      Still, Liara seemed befuddled. Then it clicked.

      “You have no idea what I’m talking about.”

      “I’m sorry. No.”

      Miranda laughed tersely, “Then this is Shepard’s doing. Well, let it not be said that she isn’t trying to help.”

      “Okay, you’ve lost me…”

      “Did you know that Doctor Chakwas is on her way to Thessia as we speak?”

      “How would she-?” Liara began and then the realization hit her as well, “Shepard. Why am I not surprised?”

      “Because Shepard wouldn’t be Shepard unless she went off half-cocked, with only a wing and a prayer.”

      “Amen,” Liara agreed.

      “But if you didn’t know about it, that means that she must have gone to Aria,” Miranda mused out loud.

      “And Aria doesn’t do anything out of the goodness of her heart. She lacks both components.”

      Silence spanned between them as the implication of their respective statements began to set in. Suddenly, Miranda had a bad feeling.

      “What did you come to talk to me about?” she asked pointedly.

      “I came here to explain what happened to the asari bounty hunter that was supposed to have been brought here. She had a broken femur.”

      Miranda shook her head, “I haven’t treated anyone except Shepard. And Jack. But she had a hangover. Surprise, surprise.”

      “But I told-” A look of cold anger settled on Liara’s face, “Aria.”

      “Whoa! Slow down. Take a deep breath.” Miranda normally would have taken great pleasure in Liara’s obvious anger and distress. But this time, even she knew something wasn’t right. And the last thing she needed Liara doing was getting herself killed. “I’m sure there’s a perfectly good explanation.”

      “Yes. Aria murdered her.”

      “Shepard?!”

      “No. The bounty hunter whose leg I broke.”

      Miranda stopped. “Wait. You broke someone’s leg? Intentionally?”

      “Quiet intentionally, yes.”

      “Why?”

      “She tried to kill Shepard.”

      “Where was I?”

      Liara pinned her with a look, shrugging overtly. “I don’t know. Obviously not treating the bounty hunter because _Aria murdered her._ ”

      “You don’t know that.”

      “Well, it’s not like she walked home.”

      “There _is_ that…” Miranda agreed, lifting a finger towards Liara.

      Another moment of silence.

      “Do you get the feeling Aria is up to something?” Miranda asked slowly.

      “Yes.”

      “Do you think it has something to do with Shepard?”

      “Yes.”

      “You ever get the feeling that-”

      “Shepard’s in over her head?” Liara finished.

      “Yes.”

      Liara took a deep breath, “I think I’ve started to lose some pigment in my crests because of her. I’m only 110.”

      “My deepest condolences,” Miranda panned. “What do you plan to do?”

      “About my crests? Nothing. As for what Aria is playing at…EDI?”

      “Yes, Captain.” EDI’s voice came over the _Opolyon_ ’s main com.

      Miranda wasn’t surprised to hear EDI on the 1-MC. It only followed that the AI would interface with the ship. The surprising part was what she had called T’Soni. She didn’t know the AI had such strong allegiances.

      “Can you scan for Shepard’s biometric signature?”

      “Of course,” After about a two second delay, “Commander Shepard is located in the Blue Suns temporary berthing.”

      Miranda arched an eyebrow towards Liara. She watched as conflicting emotions darted over her face. Anxiety, anger, jealousy, anger _again_.

      “Is she alone?” Liara asked slowly.

      “No. Aria T’Loak’s bio signature was registered as well.”

      “I’m going to fucking kill that _bitch_ ,” Liara’s biotics roiled.

      “Which one?” Miranda goaded, she couldn’t help it.

      “I haven’t figure that part out yet,” the Broker ground out.  She fixed the ex-Cerberus agent with a look that left no room for argument, if Miranda valued her appendages. “You’re coming with me. Bring a crash bag. I might have you revive T’Loak just so I can kill her again.”

      “And Shepard?”

      “I’ll let her live _after_ you revive her.” With that she was out the door.

      Miranda debated if T’Soni was joking or not. Finally, she decided it didn’t matter. If the Shadow Broker was out for blood, blood she would have. The only thing she could do was try and keep most of it inside of whatever hapless soul got in her way which was most likely going to be Shepard.

      She keyed her personal comm.

      “Jack, get your ass to the temporary berthing.”

      “Why should I?” she balked.

      “Because, you’re the only one of us who even stands a chance at stopping one very _pissed off_ Shadow Broker from killing the Pirate Queen of Omega in bloody biotic combat.”

      A huge smirk lit up Jack’s tattooed face, “That’s fucking hot. I’m there.”

      The link disconnected and Miranda wondered, not for the first time, what sins she had committed to be punished with her present company, such as it was.  She grabbed her kit and double timed it to catch up with the good Doctor who was looking to do plenty of harm.

      ***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear Reader,
> 
> I know that you were hoping to be back in Shepard's head with this post but ah, what is climax if there is no build up? Come on now, admit it, you forgot Aria was a bad, bad person. As charming a narcissist that she is - she is still a narcissist. Which is you know the self-aggrandizing version of a psycho. *sigh* But she is still a great character. Fun to write too! Since I can chuck morality out the window and it is all well within Aria's character. She is such a great contagonist and with the antagonist (the Alliance) so far away right now...a good contagonist is just what the Doctor ;) ordered.
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the update. Thank you for all the feedback. I cannot tell you how motivated that keeps me. Yes, feed the writer and she will gladly starve. :)
> 
> Have a wonderful day, my friend.


	9. Sibling Rivalry

* * *

          She _loved_ the way Shepard felt. She reveled in the struggle between Shep and her arousal. And the arousal was winning. Aria pressed her advantage by opening her own desires up, gently biting a soft lower lip.

          She felt the human’s subconscious defenses begin to slip, leaving Aria breathless from the flood of hormones that washed through their connection. Moaning into the kiss, she tangled both of her hands in Shepard’s hair, pulling lightly. Shepard’s mind completely opened as the Commander finally responded to the kiss. Taking her opportunity she went deeper into the connection.

          _The darkness that had threatened to engulf them earlier was here too, but she could see now it was alive.   Aria felt it lurking and shifting, waiting along Shepard’s nervous system. There were millions that formed the whole._

          She felt Shep’s mouth open and she plunged her own tongue into the invitation, even as she went deeper:

          _There were two different energies alighting themselves along the Commander’s nervous system. One she interpreted as originating with Shepard. It was blue and familiar in its intensity. The other was not. Crimson in its existence, it waited for a signal. A pulse. A command. Then, and only then did it advance in its purpose._

          Aria pulled away with a gasp of pleasure when she felt the Commander’s hand on the small of her back, but quickly, she locked lips again. She had to hurry, before the human broke her concentration and they ended up fucking on the ‘floor’ of Shepard’s mind.  Not bothering with a slow, painless descent back into the essence of the human’s existence. Aria simply thrust in and just as she found what she was looking for, she was thrown violently away.

          ***

          She had already readied her biotics when Jack caught her arm.

          “Wait, Doc!”

          “Jack, you saw what I did last night and so help me goddess, I will take your _arm off_ ,” she said, jaw clenched.

          “Listen, I’ll let go, if you answer two questions.”

          The Shadow Broker looked at her impatiently, “What?”

          “First, if you break those two up will it kill Shepard?” Jack asked jerking her head towards the bitch and _her_ bondmate.

          “Not that I’m aware of.”

          “Then that leads me to my second; will it hurt?”

          “Like hell.”

          Jack let go of her arm with a small flourish, “Fire at will.”

          She hurled her biotic energy. Narrowly missing Shep, it hit Aria square in the chest sending her flying bodily backwards and into a stack of equipment crates.

          “Miranda, if you wouldn’t mind checking Shepard.” Liara said evenly as she stepped past the unconscious Commander and headed purposefully towards the gangster.

          She stood over Aria who had recovered enough that she was starting to feel the headache that came with an interrupted meld, “The minute I can see straight again, T’Soni. I’m going to kick the shit out of you.”

          Liara bent at the waist, slapping her hands down on Aria’s chest and yanking her up easily with her biotics. A sneer twisted her lip, “Not if I _kill you_ first.”

          “What would Aethyta say?” Aria goaded.

          “That I should have done it sooner.”

          “You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?!” Aria’s anger caught up to Liara’s. She shoved back with her own biotics, breaking the Shadow Broker’s hold. “Little miss perfect, never does anything wrong. Both mommy and _daddy’s_ favorite!”

          Aria rushed forward; biotics charged, intent on unleashing their fury on Liara. Waiting until the last possible second, Liara ducked and straightened precisely as Aria’s weight carried her over her younger sister’s back. The move sent Aria hurtling into a bed, landing painfully against it.

          Liara turned laughing bitterly, “That’s what this is about? You’re jealous, so you figured you would try to steal my bondmate?”

          “You fucking little welp. I don’t have to _try_ anything with Shepard. Maybe if you could keep her _satisfied_ she wouldn’t have had her little tryst with the good Doctor over there,” Aria jerked her head towards where Lawson knelt next to Shepard.

          “Hey, this is between you two bitches. Leave me out of it.” Lawson retorted, her eyes never leaving her work.

          Aria’s words only confirmed what Liara had feared. Somehow, she had convinced Shepard to allow her that far into her mind. She was livid.

          “Tell me what you were doing in her head,” she demanded.

          The gangster laughed, “Don’t be a cunt. I was _trying_ to help.”

          “I doubt that.”

          Aria got to her feet. “I don’t care if you do or not. There is something; an energy or something that is _living_ inside of your precious Commander. And it’s going to take over.”

          Her words gave Liara pause. She hadn’t told Aria anything of what had been happening to Shepard and her sister’s words held an accord with the evidence they had uncovered so far.

          “Tell me everything,” the Shadow Broker ordered.

          The Pirate Queen of Omega smiled sweetly, “Of course. There’s just one more thing…”

          Without warning she hurled one last biotic blast towards Liara. Which missed the Shadow Broker, who dove right and instead hit an unaware Lawson and then cascaded over the Commander.

          “Oh, shit.” Jack cursed.

          Liara turned in time to see her bondmate, fully engulfed in dark biotic energy rise fluidly, bringing a disoriented Lawson with her. The Commander held the limp doctor close to her face, as if she couldn’t see through the blackness flooding her eyes. Her head tilting curiously this way and that.

          “Shepard, stop!” Liara screamed.

          For a moment, it seemed that ‘Shepard’ didn’t hear her. But then, she slowly lowered Miranda enough so that she could look past the woman’s shoulder. Those cold, black eyes found Liara’s and bored into her.

          “ _She will ascend._ ”

          The synthetic quality to her voice brought their shared nightmare back in crystal clarity. She had enough time to scream ‘ _no_ ’ before a strange, thrumming vibration filled the air and Shepard engulfed both herself and Lawson in her biotics.

          ***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear Reader,
> 
> I know, this one is short. Perhaps, not sweet. But if I wrote anymore on this particular update - I would start giving the plot away at the wrong time. So, I beg your pardon and your patience. The next one will, hopefully, more than adequately make recompense for the brevity of this particular post.
> 
> Until then - I hope life finds you happy for at least a moment today.
> 
> Thanks for reading, my friend.
> 
> ~Bendithio


	10. Alien Entanglements

* * *

        She was cold, incredibly cold.

        Frigid pain traveled along her nerve endings. She could feel it traverse from the base of her skull to the tips of her toes. But that was nothing compared to the infernal, incessant whispering that filled her ears and obliterated her thoughts.

        _“Miranda.”_

        She didn’t hear Shepard’s voice, in so much as she felt it. The smoky alto was a vibration that rose above the freezing darkness and the murmuring cacophony of unintelligible noise. She wanted to respond, to cry out but the way to do so eluded her.

        _“I promise it will be okay. Relax. It will only hurt for a moment.”_

        Fear rose up at the Commander’s words. She willed herself to move, to struggle, to fight against whatever was about to happen. The agony in her nerves and muscles increased and as the torment threatened to overtake her mind and unhinge her sanity, she unexpectedly felt Shepard. Beside her, around her, in her. The Commander’s soothing, steady energy buffering the assault on her senses.

        The bulwark Shepard somehow had created against the agonizing attack gave her enough of a reprieve to allow her to step outside of her discomfort and observe it. Her biotic implants were the source of her hell. A fresh wave of pain washed through her each time the alien energy activated the damaged cybernetics. And there seemed to be no pattern to the activations, just flash after flash of torturous suffering.

        She thought it would go on forever. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the agony ebbed. Shepard’s unwavering energy grew stronger and stronger. Miranda allowed the Commander’s comforting presence overtake her as her mind fell into blissful oblivion.

        ***

        From somewhere above her, she heard: “I believe she is coming around.”

        She tried to latch on to the sound, to follow it out of the numb haze that she found herself in. But the silent siren song of somnolence beaconed her back. The next thing she was aware of was a warm hand on her own.

        “Miranda? Can you hear me, dear? Squeeze my hand if you can.”

        With great effort, she tightened her grip on the warm digits wrapped against her palm.

        “Thank god,” came the relieved benediction.

        Her consciousness beginning to return fully, Miranda struggled briefly and finally opened her eyes. She blinked a few times and the world came into focus. Liara and a very concerned Karin Chakwas stood over her.

        “Wh-” She tried, but her tongue felt stuck to the roof of her mouth.

        “Take it easy, girl. Try not to speak. You’ve been out for nearly two days.” The older woman said, inclining the bed. “You had me worried.”

        Liara held out a glass of water for Miranda to sip from. Water had never tasted so good! She forced herself to drink slowly.

        “What’s the last thing you remember?”

        “I was next to Shepard. You and Aria were arguing. Something hit me and then,” she frowned, trying to recall. “Dark, cold pain and…Shepard?”

        “The Commander?” Chakwas repeated in encouragement.

        She nodded then shook her head. “I don’t know how to describe it. All I could hear…no, see? I-I don’t know how to explain it. I was in pain and then there was Shepard. Telling me it would be okay. That it wouldn’t last long-”

        Liara looked at Dr. Chakwas in bewildered alarm.

        “-It got worse, the pain. But then it got better because; Shepard. I don’t know what she did. She…she fixed _it_.”

        “You could hear Shepard, in your head?” Liara asked.

        Miranda nodded.

        “Could you _see_ her?”

        “No, but I could _feel_ her.”

        “Is that like what you experienced?” Chakwas asked Liara.

        Liara frowned, “Yes and no. Shepard and I already have an established connection. An asari and her bondmate are never really _disconnected_ until death. I can feel her wherever I go _anyway_ , so it’s hard for me to say if what Miranda experienced is the same.”

        There was a hardness to Liara’s words and suddenly Miranda felt _guilty._ Never, since she they had met years before when Liara had turned over Shepard’s corpse to her, had she ever felt _guilt_ in regards to T’Soni:

        Not when she had taken the Commander’s body with no intent of ever informing the grieving girlfriend of if they were successful or not. Nor when Shepard, newly returned to her mortal coil and hurting, had found comfort in Miranda’s arms; trapped and writhing under her thighs, against the engineering deck after T’Soni’s reception to her resurrection had been as frigid as the cold space she had died in. And certainly _not_ when she would still occasionally catch the Commander _watching_ her walk away. But now, suddenly, a wave of remorse came over her and she felt _bad_ about all of it.

        It was very _unnerving_.

        “Would anyone care to fill me in?” she said, desperate to push the alien feelings away.

        “According to Liara, it appears the Commander has developed some sort of telepathic ability.”

        “That’s preposterous. Telepathy in humans is _rare_. Shepard would have demonstrated the capacity before now,” Miranda argued.

        “Then how would you explain what you experienced?” Liara asked.

        “I- have no idea. It didn’t sound like Shepard was talking to me from outside of me. There was this noise. A hellish ambient affair and it felt like Shepard’s voice spoke out from _that._ And when I say I _felt_ her...” she trailed off. She didn’t even know how to begin to describe it. _If only-_

        She looked at Liara, “Join with me.”

        “ _What?”_

        “Or, meld. Whatever it is you asari do,” she shrugged.

        “Those are two _vastly_ different things,” Liara pointed out dryly.

        “Are they?”

        “Like night and day. And, let me just say, there is _no_ way on the goddess’ blue planet that I would _ever_ join with you,” she paused. “However, I see your point to a meld.”

        “Good,” she said, even as she screamed at herself, _What am I doing?_

        She had sworn a long time ago to _never_ allow any alien race to penetrate _any_ part of her being. Shepard might have changed her mind on cooperation with other species but that didn’t mean her principals on interspecies _exchanges_ had changed. Or, at least, she hadn’t thought so up until she had opened her mouth to one the _last_ person she ever wanted in her head and had essentially offered her to look around.

        T’Soni must have noticed the conflict on her face because the words she spoke next were surprisingly gentle, “Are you sure?”

        “No, but I know that I can’t make sense of it alone. Shepard told me about how you helped her sort out the message from the prothean beacon. You _know_ Shepard. If EDI and Traynor’s hypothesis is correct and this is some variation of a reaper code, then it is activated by a signal. And if that is the case, it isn’t telepathy- it’s a form of indoctrination.”

        Liara’s eyes widened, “Of course. Cold, dark. Ann Bryson reported the same thing when she fell under Leviathan’s control.”

        “Are you suggesting-?” Chakwas finally spoke.

        “That Shepard might be indoctrinated? I don’t know. We haven’t-” Liara trailed off, brow furrowing.

        “Yeah, but that’s the thing. If I share my memories with you. You should be able to tell if it was Shepard or something else.” _Was she actually actively encouraging this meld?_

        The asari sighed, “Theoretically, yes.”

        “Then what’s the hold up?”

        Liara narrowed her eyes, “No hold up. I just never took you for a human who would agree to, let alone encourage, a meld. No offense.”

        “None taken. Normally, I wouldn’t. But given I just had my mind intruded into by a human, who I know doesn’t have those kinds of capabilities. I think I’ll make an exception to let someone, who has an organic capacity for that sort of thing, take a look.”

        “I can’t argue with your logic,” she sighed.

        She laid a hand on Miranda’s forearm, closing her eyes only to reveal dark pools a moment later.

        “Embrace eternity, Doctor.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello Dear Reader,
> 
> I know. I took a day off. But, the schedule is back to normal. I realize that there are some people who didn't read, or did not read all of, Infinitum. So, I'm trying to lace bits of that story (at important parts) into this one. If this is redundant at any point, I apologize and ask patience from those of you who finished Infinitum - while I slip certain plot points in here and there so that those who did not, aren't lost.
> 
> I hope you had a good weekend. Take Care, my friend.


	11. Mass De Foris

* * *

          It was the last place she wanted to be, so she didn’t enter very far.

          Liara stayed high above Miranda’s consciousness, careful not to disturb the human’s psyche with her own. Her run in with Shepard was recent, so she didn’t have to look far. Finding the memory, she entered it.

          It was disconcerting experiencing a memory. First, she was subject to the emotions that Lawson had felt at the time. Second, she was perceived what the biotic’s thoughts had been. Third, she also felt the same sensations albeit second hand.

          _She felt the cold pain spiraling from her biotics. She could hear Shepard. Shepard would help her. She heard the voices. She felt the Commander’s energy: strong, soothing, protective._

          Liara recoiled a bit. She had not been ready for Miranda’s emotions towards Shepard. Sure, she had been aware of their brief affair but it never occurred to her that there had been real emotions involved on Lawson’s part. Real emotions that remained.

          Steeling herself for whatever else might be hidden in the human doctor’s psyche, Liara returned to the memory, cautiously avoiding any emotions associated with it.

          _Shep’s ‘energy’ was constant, intertwined in the dark crimson. It steered, manipulated, adjusted. She was the influence, her biotics the battery but Shepard was not the font. The source was far outside of the Commander, able to use her biotics as an interface._

          Satisfied that there was nothing more to learn and eager to be done. Liara exited the meld quickly, her own thoughts racing. The implication of what she had witnessed horrifically validating the fears she had kept so close. Shepard was _changing_ and if they didn’t figure out a way to stop it soon, she worried that her bondmate would be lost to forever.

          “Liara!” Dr. Chakwas firm voice broke into her cyclical thoughts. She blinked, focusing on the older woman, “What did you see? Was it Shepard?”

          “I- yes but no. Shepard has the ability to control it but she isn’t the one who triggers it. At least, not yet.”

          “What do you mean? I thought that her encountering biotic energy triggered it,” Lawson said.

          “Biotics only trigger a response in the nanitic code. It’s like holding food out in front of a starving animal. What happened with you and I suspect EDI, was entirely different. Shepard’s biotics are serving as an interface for, if I were to guess, Leviathan. It only makes sense. They were the ones that built the Intelligence in the first place. At least, that’s how Shepard explained it.”

          “The Intelligence?” Miranda asked.

          “What Shepard encountered when she went entered the Catalyst aboard the Citadel. It created the Reapers. They were its stop gap solution for preventing synthetic life from taking over the galaxy each cycle. What it truly wanted was-” Liara stopped short, her eyes widening, “Oh dear goddess.”

          “Liara, dear, what is it?”

          “Synthesis, of course! There was no way _it_ was going to allow itself to be destroyed without having a failsafe in place,” Liara said, striking her palm lightly against her forehead, “It’s so obvious. How did I miss it?”

          Chakwas and Lawson exchanged a look, “Do you have any idea what she’s talking about?”

          “Not in the slightest,” Miranda replied.

          “I know what’s happening to Shepard,” Liara finally spoke _to_ them. “She’s evolving. Well, she’s _changing_. I don’t know if Shepard is capable of evolving…” she amended, still pissed about finding her with Aria.

          “Liara focus. Remind me to give you the prenatal vitamins I brought with me. I picked them up from an asari doctor friend of mine. She swears by them for mothers carrying a human child.”

          “You’re pregnant?” Coming from Miranda it didn’t sound so much like a question as it did a biting accusation.

          She took a deep breath, trying to contain the urge to wrap her hands around Lawson’s neck and throttle her. _Where does this bitch get off?_

          “Yes. I’m pregnant.”

          “You didn’t – oh – I’m sorry, Liara.” Chakwas apologized.

          “Don’t worry about it Karin,” she replied with a sigh. “I wasn’t going to be able to hide it much longer.”

          “I suppose congratulations are in order,” Lawson droned.

          “That’s really _not_ necessary. As I was saying, if whatever is happening is connected with Leviathan than that means that the interface is works on quasi quantum entanglements.” She looked at Miranda, “Your father was researching ways on how to control the reaper signal, correct? Do you think you could interpret and duplicate his research?”

          “Most likely. That is, of course, of the presupposition that you can actually get your hands on it. It most likely went up in flames with the Illusive Man’s base. So, good luck with that.”

          A subtle smile crept onto Liara’s face, “EDI?”

          “Yes Captain,” came the prompt reply from over the 1MC.

          “You were with Shepard when she infiltrated the Illusive Man’s base, correct?”

          “Yes.”

          “Do you still have the backup files you relieved Cerberus of?”

          “Yes. They were encrypted to my vault memory which was uncorrupted by my deactivation thanks in large part to Tali outfitting me with a secondary UPS.”

          “UPS?” Chakwas asked.

          “Uninterruptible power supply,” EDI filled in.

          “Oh,” was all the doctor said, nodding like she had an idea what the AI was talking about.

          “Please tell me that you managed to download Lawson’s father’s research,” Liara continued.

          There was a brief silence, then: “Yes.”

          She let out a breath that she didn’t know she had been holding, “Could you send that information to Miranda, please?”

          “Already done.”

          “Thank you, EDI. Could you do me one more favor and get a hold of Samantha and Tali and tell them to meet me in a few hours?”

          “Of course, captain.”

          “Liara,” Dr. Chakwas spoke when it was safe, “I haven’t had the chance to examine Shepard or test Miranda’s biotics.”

          “I know,” she replied.

          “Then you know that I’m not going to back whatever plan you have until I do.”

          “I know.”

          Chakwas paused, “I suppose what I’m asking is: what exactly are you doing?”

          Liara took a deep breath and let it out in a rush. She didn’t exactly have the patience for all the questions and all the talking. Time was not on Shepard’s side.

          “Tell me Doctor; when a human has a bad heart, liver or any organ that quits functioning, what is the medical standard of practice?”

          “The organ is removed and replaced. I’m still not following.”

          Liara fought against the urge to roll her eyes. Where humans always so slow?

          “Miranda, you reconstructed Shepard. Do you think it is possible to transplant _all_ of her implants?”

          The two human doctors exchanged an unsure, surprised look.

          “Liara. Shepard was _dead_ when I did that. There was no possibility of her body rejecting the implants because her body was not _alive._ Humans don’t have your immune system. We can’t just interchange parts and pieces! There is serious trauma and risks that occur each time we go under the knife. What you’re asking-”

          “Could kill Shepard,” Chakwas finished, her gaze leveled on Liara’s.

          “ _Again_. How many lives do you think she has?” Miranda added.

          She hesitated for a moment. It wasn’t that she didn’t believe the two human women who were insisting the risk was too high but she knew if they did _nothing_ the Commander _would_ be lost forever.

          “If we do nothing, she dies anyway. Maybe not physically but she will be _gone_ and who knows what will remain in her body,” Liara ground out, the look on her face a challenge.

          A long moment of silence fell over them, finally Chakwas sighed, “You’re right, of course.”

          She felt the apprehension in her spirit starting to lift, “Thank you.”

          Liara stood, “Do what you have to. Examine Shepard. Find out exactly she did to Miranda. I will be back in a few hours.”

          “Where are you going?” Lawson asked.

          If she hadn’t known better she would have sworn that Miranda’s question had the same plaintive tone that Shepard had whenever Liara would abruptly leave. It was weird.

          “I’m going to see if my _bitch_ of a _sister_ can help with new implants,” Liara growled.

          “You have a sister?” Lawson gaped. “Who?”

          “Aria,” she spit out the name and left.

          “I’ll be damned,” Miranda chuckled, “that explains _everything_.”

          ***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah my friend,
> 
> We have come to the end of Ab Intra. If you haven't noticed, I prefer to write episodic fiction. For me, each 'episode' usually runs about 30-35k words. (I would have proof of this is if Infinitum was still up - PS - anyone have access to that as a PDF or feel like cutting & pasting Infinitum into a word doc for me and emailing it? I and a few people here would be ever so grateful.) 
> 
> The next 'episode' will be the final episode and it will (hopefully) wrap up Shepard and Liara's story. I have noticed that I am starting to really slow down on writing ME. Probably because BioWare has allowed TOO MUCH TIME in between the releasing of the Mass Effect titles. There has been so many changes to gaming platforms and battle systems that this wonderful title is quickly becoming passe. Also, from what I have read - there will be NO SHEPARD in Mass Effect 4. I guess the developers wanted players to experience the whole process of 'becoming' a hero instead of just automatically being the galaxy's bad ass-iest hero ever.
> 
> So, there's that - but this fic is a labor of "love" to give Liara and Shepard a better ending than what the game gave you. I hate it when they leave games like that and then - whoops, not going to follow up. Grrr. Piss poor story telling in my book when people do that. Like they couldn't be bothered to give you a happy ending! 
> 
> Fear not, reader. I ALWAYS give happy endings. ;) And I will not leave you high and dry. However, with that being said - I am going to be taking a break for a week (maybe two) from writing on this fic. I have storyboarding to do (in my head) and I have family coming in from jolly o' England - so I will be playing hostess (call me cupcake and I beat you) for a week or so. Have patience, I will return.
> 
> In the meantime, check out my other work if you are feeling puckish. Cantabo isn't a bad read especially if you like Dragon Age. 
> 
> Until then - be safe, take care and smile.
> 
> Cheers,  
> Bendithio
> 
> PS - the next 'episode' will be called "Mass De Foris" - keep an eye out!


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